Eternity Daily Bible Study - No. 505 Series: Romans 1-8 "A Righteousness That Is By Faith" Verses: Romans 2:1-4 Topic: Self-Condemned Critics Date: 29th August 2005 Romans 2:1-4 HCSB Therefore, anyone of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. (2) We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. (3) Do you really think--anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same--that you will escape God's judgment? (4) Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? The people Paul is writing to here are the "critics", those who consider themselves righteous and who condemn others. He is outlining an important biblical principle - that we will be judged with the very same judgment which we impose on others. The following verses illustrate this principle of reciprocity - that God treats us in the same manner that we treat those in our power: Luke 6:36-38 HCSB Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. (37) "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (38) Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over--will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." Matthew 5:7 HCSB Blessed are the merciful, because they will be shown mercy. Psalms 18:25-26 HCSB With the faithful You prove Yourself faithful; with the blameless man You prove Yourself blameless; (26) with the pure You prove Yourself pure, but with the crooked You prove Yourself shrewd. Matthew 18:32-35 HCSB "Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, 'You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. (33) Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' (34) And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers until he could pay everything that was owed. (35) So My heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart." These critics were not being merciful but were standing over others and condemning them for their faults. However the critics were guilty of the very same things! It is like those ministers who thunder against fornication while having an affair with the church secretary. Sometimes it is those who are committing a particular sin that are most vehement in preaching against it from the pulpit. God does not approve such sermons, though they may be factually and exegetically correct - they come from a wrong heart with the wrong motive. In fact such diatribes only store up judgment for the person by clearly showing that they knew that what they were doing (the affair or other sin) was absolutely wrong. Matthew 12:36-37 HCSB I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. (37) For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." The fact that they are getting away with flagrant sin at the moment is no indicator of God's approval of their sinning - but instead is a sign of God's great patience. Do you really think--anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same--that you will escape God's judgment? (4) Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? Patience with sin is not the same as permission to sin. God wants people to give up their sin, and to come to repentance. God never allows anyone to sin, He always wants him or her to be righteous and is just waiting for him or her to give up the sin and get right with Him. In the end there is no escaping God's judgment, it will either fall in this life, or in the next, on the cross or on the sinner. Sin always gets paid for, and dealt with. You can repent and deal with your sin and have it paid for by Christ. Or you can be hard-hearted and impenitent and pay for your sin yourself as God deals with you. The ideal is to be soft-hearted and of a tender conscience, quickly repenting of sin and coming to Christ for strength and for cleansing. We are also to be merciful folk remembering that we could easily stumble and fall ourselves: Galatians 6:1-5 HCSB Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual should restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so you won't be tempted also. (2) Carry one another's burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (3) For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he is deceiving himself. (4) But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else. (5) For each person will have to carry his own load. Paul is slowly building an argument here that will culminate with "there are none righteous, no not one" and show that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". In Romans 2:1-4 he shows that the judgmental hypocrites won't escape, they are just as big a bunch of sinners as those they condemn. You see living by rules and laws and religious codes, without faith, without gospel and without the power of the indwelling Christ, inevitably leads to hypocrisy. Without God no one can live up to their own ethical code. There will always be a point of hypocrisy where we do something that we condemn others for. Like the plumber whose roof leaks or the electrician with the broken toaster we are apt to mess up in life precisely at our point of greatest strength. None of us can be "experts" on religion and morality, in the end we should all be penitents - casting ourselves on the kindness and patience of God. Blessings In Christ, John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph) __________________________________________________________________ REFER OTHERS: If this devotional is a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving this daily bible study. 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