2:1-3
As we begin Chapter 2 of Romans…Paul was addressing a couple of serious issues that were causing a division within the church in Rome.
FRIST was the theological conflict between the Jews who believed that this new movement…initially called ‘the way’ (ἡ ὁδός)…was for Jews only[Matt. 10:5] …they were confused with the idea that God was expanding what had primarily began as a movement within the Jewish community…now spreading it to all the world.
The Jewish Christians believed they had a preferred status with God because of their ancestral relations with God…they thought themselves to be superior to the Gentile believers.
This left the Jewish Christians confused as they tried to understand how to handle the influx of Gentile believers into their churches.
Some Jewish Christians claimed Gentile believers needed to follow the Jewish religious rituals in order to receive salvation…Jewish Christians were judging Gentile Christians for not conforming to their own expectations…in other words they were adding works to what God had freely given in the death and resurrection of His Son… salvation to all who believe.
SECOND…you need to understand the context in which Romans second chapter is written…it’s thought Romans 2 is kind of a ‘got-ya’ for Jewish believers who thought they were more righteous than the Gentiles.
In Romans 1 Paul was giving what the Jewish believers thought was a tongue-lashing against the Gentiles because of the way they formerly lived.
Here’s what’s remarkable about what Paul is preparing to teach…something that hasn’t changed for over 2000 years.
In Chapter 2 Paul addresses those who may be tempted to look down on others saying; “those people in chapter 1 are awful…who does those sorts of things…that can’t be directed at us…we’re too religious”.
The sins identified in verses 29-32 certainly couldn’t include us…people:
—Filled with—unrighteousness…wickedness…and greed
—Being full of–envy…murder…strife…deceit…and malice.
—Being–gossipers…slanderers…haters of God…arrogant… boastful… inventors of evil…disobedient to parents…without understanding… untrustworthy…unloving…and unmerciful.
A self-assured religious person might read the description of those sins and convince themselves that was about other people.
It’s easy for us to deny that at one time this was the condition we were in…it’s easy to be tempted to think… ‘this is just about unbelievers, not us’.
BUT… because man has always had lofty ideas of himself….and considers himself to be above those things…the Jews were content in believing Paul was referring to the Gentiles and not to them.
That’s exactly the situation in Romans 2…Christian Jews congratulating themselves that they are not like the Gentiles described in Romans 1.
Paul begins to look at these religious hypocrites and tells them there is no difference between the two.
That’s why the first three chapters of the Book of Romans are some of the most discouraging and depressing chapters in the entire New Testament as Paul begins to elaborate on the hopelessness of human nature and the eternal destiny that awaits every person who has ever lived…because despite what people may think about themselves Paul says:
2 1 Therefore you are inexcusable (you have no excuse) you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.
There are a few things that need to be looked at in this verse:
…FIRST…this is the second time Paul has made the statement…you are inexcusable [1:20] to the Gentiles in their lack of acknowledging God in creation…now he uses it against the Jews.
In the Greek…‘inexcusable’ literally meant ‘you are defenseless’…in the spiritual court of laws there is no defense for the actions of a person who commits the same sin of which he accuses another.
…SECOND…interesting word ‘practice’ …what does that mean?
The word ‘practice’ in Greek and English means the same thing… something done as a habit…someone who intentionally does the same thing over and over again.
In reading this…as a Christian…how do I know Paul’s not writing about me… because I’m concerned that I might be that person.
The word ‘practice’ as used here is referring to habitual sin, not to a believer’s occasional sin…but a continued committed lifestyle of sin…Paul is speaking to those who continue in sin on a determined…deliberate… repeatedly …habitual manner…that’s what it means to practice sin.
…THIRD…as a general rule…people seek to uphold moral standards of Scripture …they even profess to be Christians…BUT…polls show that since 1990 there has been a 20% drop in the number of people who identify themselves as being Christian.
A recent poll indicated that only 63% of adults identify themselves as being Christian so what about the other 40%…this aligns with the polls that say over 30% of adults are…atheist…agnostic …or unaffiliated.
“If the unaffiliated—those 30% who see themselves as…atheist…agnostic or unaffiliated—were a religion, they’d be the single largest religious group in the United States.” …Elizabeth Drescher, adjunct professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University.
What a terrible reflection on a nation the prides itself on being Christian…then the problem is further compounded by the fact that the actual percentage of people worshiping each week is only about 18% of that 63% who claim to be Christian.
Why Only 18% of people who claim to be Christians are in church on any given Sunday…although they may identify themselves as being Christian…in most cases they have elected to separate themselves from the church because Church is just not that important anymore.
When that happens…here’s the problem…Satan’s mission is to separate us from the presence of Holy Spirit…separate us from God’s will and plan for our lives …without the guiding of the Holy Spirit we backslide and fall back into our old sinful ways.
That’s the importance of [Hebrews 10:25] that says…do not forsake meeting together…the word ‘forsake’ in the Greek is referring to an abandonment.
It’s easy to drift away from God when you’re not connected to His people… Satan’s mission is to separate us from the presence of Holy Spirit and the assembling of ourselves together with other Christians.
When we are not regularly communing with God and His people, we are vulnerable to Satan’s attempts to disrupt God’s plan and purpose for our lives.
When someone decides to separate themselves from the church…eventually over time…there is no difference between them and someone who rejects the church…eventually falling back into the lifestyle they lived before conversion.
Unfortunately, this decline is sometimes not recognized by the person who is sliding backwards until it is too late to reverse the consequences…if you are a Christian there are consequences to sin…then we blame God for the consequences we bring upon ourselves.
This is how temptation works…when our hearts are lured away by sinful desires these desires become more important than obeying and pleasing God…as we continue to slide backwards in our faith satisfying our desires it produces more sin… sin produces a downward spiral of disobedience and distortion of truth.
The sin cycle continues until it finally ends with people warping and fashioning God’s Word to meet and satisfy their own ends.
The result is what Charles Stanley defines as the Law of the Harvest (we reap what we sow) because of our painful decisions…then we blame God for the consequences we bring upon ourselves.
When you made the decision to become a Christian you gave up the right to yourself…you now belong to God…God’s kind of selfish in that respect.
Here’s something else that sin produces in a person…Paul addresses this issue and the severity of it is referenced multiple times in Scripture and I want us to focus on it this morning:
Do you suppose—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? [3]
There’s that word ‘practice’ again…speaking to those who continue in sin on a determined…deliberate… repeatedly and …habitual manner.
Sin causes a numbness in us…when we’re outside God’s will for our lives it’s easy for us to judge someone else for something we ourselves are doing… something we just haven’t fully owned up to as of yet.
It’s been said…“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.” ~ Earl Nightingale.
We are bothered by the qualities in others that we choose not to see in ourselves …we rail against another people’s habits…appearance…or lifestyle choices because they are the very ones many times…we dislike in ourselves.
That’s what sin does…it blinds us to see our own faults…then…because we have quenched the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives to convict us…we deflect the attention on others by pointing out their actions and behaviors.
Paul recognizes that when Christians are living in sin…in their efforts to remove themselves from God’s judgment they seek to explain that sin is not their fault thinking they can ‘escape the judgment of God.’ [3]
Why would anyone think they can escape God’s judgment…in Romans 1 Paul reveals that unbelievers think they can escape the wrath of God simply because they don’t believe in the existence of God…therefore…they’re not accountable …but they’re wrong.
In chapter 2 Paul confronts his Jewish readers who make the same mistake of thinking God won’t judge them because they don’t think themselves as being sinful and because they are God’s chosen people…both sides are wrong.
The Jews, on the other hand, became judgmental…hypocritical…and boastful because they believed they were the people of the Torah.
The crux of the problem is that each side misunderstands the judgment of God …when people elect to remove themselves from church or reduce their attendance they lack the spiritual maturity and the divine morality in their lives to make a decision regarding assessing another person’s lifestyle.
In their efforts to justify themselves they have just enough knowledge of Christianity to be dangerous in making judgments about someone else.
This is the intent of verse [1]
every (one) man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself: for you who judge practice the same things [1]
There’s that word ‘practice’ again…speaking to those who continue in sin on a determined…deliberate… repeatedly and …habitual manner.
Paul is giving a warning to the moralists and professing Christians who think they are exempt from God’s judgment because they have not sunk into the pagan, immoral practices mentioned in chapter 1.
Paul especially has the Jews in mind….the Jews stood in judgment of the Gentiles for being guilty of the sins mentioned in Romans 1…however…in judging the Gentiles…the Jews condemned themselves because the Jews were
guilty of the same sins as the Gentiles…Therefore you are without excuse.
It is crucial to recognize the danger of judgment…TWO WAYS:
—ONE– judgment causes broken relationships…think about in your personal life…the damage judging others causes…then elevate that to a spiritual level… the cause of our broken relationship with God is judgment…our judgment of God is that He’s not adequate enough…therefore…we can create better gods on our own.
—TWO– When an individual or a group of people develop their own standards of religion and morality…they inevitably judge everyone else by those self-made beliefs and standards…anytime someone elevates himself… everyone else is lowered accordingly.
This is essentially the danger Jesus was preaching against in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:1 – “Do not judge least you be judged”.
A very misunderstood command from Jesus…it’s in the imperative voice… Jesus is saying when making judgments against anyone…‘don’t do that…that’s not really a very good idea.’
When Jesus states;Judge not, that you be not judged, He is suggestingtwo things:
FIRST…He’s defining who is in a position to judge.
Matt 7:1 is not addressed to the common person but more likely was directed at the Pharisees…because of who they were in a legal…ecclesiastical (e-clee-see-ass-ti-cal) (relating to church clergy) position to govern others…if you are not in ecclesiastical authority over others…the verse does not apply to you.
Matt 7:1 is not addressed to the common person…it is not referring to lay people of the church who are not in a position to act in an official manner…they are not in a position to pass judgment…condemn…OR… punish…that is conveyed
in the Greek word we translate as “judge” …briefly…here are the guidelines:
(1) Judge no one unless it is your duty to do so.
(2) Judge the offense, and not the offender.
(3) Confine your judgment to earthly faults and leave their relation to God.
Whenever we condemn people because we believe their motives are wrong…we pass judgment that only God is qualified to make.
However, this verse IS NOT teaching that we should not express an opinion regarding right and wrong…because we should…but…we must be careful to make right judgments instead of judging others by external appearances.
It’s a slippery slope…Scripture does give Christians the responsibility to make judgments about truth and falsehood [Gal. 1:9 / Phil. 3:2 / 1 John 4:1] …
As Christians we do have the obligation to assess someone’s behavior…we have a duty to assess the things happening in our workplace …our church…or our nation that serves…or hinders God’s purposes…Christians do have a responsibility to assess people’s actions to prevent injustice.
…A supervisor may need to discipline or fire an employee who is not doing their job satisfactorily
…a worker may need to report an ethical or policy violation
…a student may need to report cheating by another student
…there are times when we may need to cut off contact with others because of their lifestyle…BUT…
We do not judge them…or set ourselves up as morally superior…we are not to declare one person’s righteousness worthy and another person unworthy based on our assumptions.
That’s exactly what Paul is saying in [2:3] when you pass judgment…and do the same yourself why do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
As Christians we do have the obligation to assess someone’s behavior…BUT:
We should be careful to assess our own lifestyle before condemning the shortcoming of others while possibly doing the very same thing…that’s why it’s best not to judge least you be judged.
SECOND thing Jesus is dictating in Matthew is how NOT to judge:
1) NOT in a hypocritical manner…do not judge someone for the SAME SIN that you are committing…don’t judge your neighbor for stealing office supplies from work when you regularly steal them yourself.
2) In a rash…and unjust manner… [Luke 6:37] –“…do not condemn and you will not be condemned…” don’t form a hasty and harsh judgment without allowing for circumstances.
In two chapters Paul tells the Galatians that it’s the ‘wrath of God’ against all ungodliness…but tells the Jewish Christians it’s the ‘judgment of God’ …is there a difference? …YES there is.
Difference between the ‘wrath of God’ and ‘God’s judgment’ …regarding the wrath of God…there’s really no good way to soften “the wrath of God” to mean anything other than God’s response to human disobedience.
God’s wrath is not a reckless rage or an uncontrollable anger…people confuse God’s wrath with human wrath…the wrath of God is a controlled response to the belittling of His holiness.
Everyone who perishes under the wrath of God does so…not because God lost His temper and is mistreating them…God’s wrath against sinners is nothing more than God giving them what they wanted or deserve…because they chose.
As opposed to God’s judgment…people say what is occurring in the world today is the judgment of God …people assign the COVID epidemic to God judging the world…no it’s not.
What we see in the world today is not the judgment of God…it is the natural consequences of sin in the earth.
God’s judgment is when He reveals the true character of every person who has ever lived…has nothing to do with God’s anger…it’s when He publicly rewards every person who has ever lived based on how you lived.
If I were to title this sermon…I don’t title my sermons…could title it the impartiality of God.
It is God’s response to the Gentiles’ unbelief and the Jews’ self-centeredness that reveals that He is an impartial God…Paul says so in verse 11 ‘for there is no partiality with God’… [Acts 10:34-35 / 1 Peter 1:17 / Deut.10:17].
People are prone to treat others based on external criteria such as looks… possessions…or social status….but God is utterly impartial… He never shows favoritism and always gives you exactly what you deserve without partiality.
God is an impartial God…Jesus’ whole life was a declaration of His impartiality:
…He healed lepers who were social outcasts
…He washed the feet of His disciples, even the disciple who would betray Him
…He ate and drank with sinners and tax collectors as well as the religious elite
…He was crucified a criminal’s death for those who were spiritually dead.
God is judgmental…it’s part of His character…but He’s also impartial…in just two verses God is giving us some helpful tips to consider in our own personal life.