Romans 2:2,3 - Judging others

2:2

So how can this "moral" person be guilty? Paul now proceeds to present his case. The starting point is God, as it should be with all things. Indeed, this is the prime failing of all human wisdom, it starts with man, not with God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Jew would readily accept this, nod his head in eager agreement that God's judgement is based on truth. So whatever God says is bound to be right. God's judgement is based on truth. Now truth is not just an abstract philosophical concept. Jesus said "I am the truth", Jesus is truth.

2:3

The term "O man" appears again. Paul draws attention to a logical conclusion from our judging others, but before we do that we need to consider a common misunderstanding about judging. In debates, particularly relating to sexual morality, we often hear people say "do not judge others", usually quoting the words of Jesus to the woman caught in adultery, Jesus' words on not judging others. But look at what Paul is saying here and what he is not saying. He is most definitely not saying that the various things mentioned in chapter 1 are not wrong. It is absolutely fundamental to his argument that they are wrong. What he is saying is that the man is in no position to claim that he is better than these people. We need to apply the same principle. When something is clearly against Biblical standards we need to say so clearly, but we must not consider that we are superior to people who do these things. The gospel is that all have sinned , and that all includes you and me, and all can be saved through faith in the blood of Jesus, and that includes the people who do the evil acts.

The man is judging the actions and lives of others, saying they are against God's laws, and this is definitely true. However, the corollary of this is that the man himself can expect to be judged by God as well. The question we like to ask is "what will God think of them", the question we all need to ask, and to focus most clearly on, is "what will God think of us?" This, of course, reminds us of Jesus' teaching on taking the plank out of our own eye before we try to take motes out of other people's eyes (Matt 7:5). Indeed it is interesting how well Paul's teaching ties in with what we find in the gospels. Some people are keen on saying that Paul introduced a different gospel, teaching things that Jesus never said and were at odds with Jesus' own teaching. Such ideas are simply nonsense.