Chapter 2

¹Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you pose as a judge, for when you pass judgment on someone else, you are condemning yourself, for you, who sit in judgment, do the very same things yourself. ²We know that God’s judgment rightfully falls upon those who do such things as these. ³And do you suppose, when you sit in judgment upon those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Do you think so lightly of his wealth of kindness, forbearance, and patience, and fail to see that God’s kindness ought to induce you to repent? ⁵But in your obstinacy and impenitence you are storing up wrath for yourself on the Day of Wrath, when the justice of God will burst forth. ⁶For he will pay every man for what he has done. ⁷Those who by persistently doing right strive for glory, honor, and immortality will have eternal life, ⁸but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury, ⁹crushing distress and anguish, every human soul of them that actually does what is wrong—the Jew first, and the Greek also; ¹⁰but there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does right, the Jew first, and the Greek also, ¹¹for God shows no partiality.

¹²All who sin without having the Law will perish without regard to the Law, and all who sin under the Law will be judged by the Law. ¹³For merely hearing the Law read does not make a man upright in the sight of God; men must obey the Law to be made upright. ¹⁴When heathen who have no Law instinctively obey what the Law demands, even though they have no law they are a law to themselves, ¹⁵for they show that what the Law demands is written on their hearts, and their consciences will testify for them, and with their thoughts they will either accuse or perhaps defend themselves, ¹⁶on that Day when, as the good news I preach teaches, God through Christ Jesus judges what men have kept secret,

¹⁷Suppose you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God, ¹⁸and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right, ¹⁹and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark, ²⁰train the foolish, teach the young, since you have knowledge and truth formulated in the Law— ²¹why, then, will you teach others and refuse to teach yourself? Will you preach against stealing, and yet steal yourself? ²²Will you warn men against adultery, and yet practice it yourself? Will you pretend to detest idols, and yet rob their temples? ²³Will you boast of the Law and yet dishonor God by breaking it? ²⁴For, as the Scripture says, the very name of God is abused among the heathen, because of you! ²⁵Circumcision will help you only if you observe the Law; but if you are a lawbreaker, you might as well be uncircumcised. ²⁶So if people who are uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, will they not be treated as though they were circumcised? ²⁷And if, although they are physically uncircumcised, they obey the Law, they will condemn you, who break the Law, although you have it in writing, and are circumcised. ²⁸For the real Jew is not the man who is one outwardly, and the real circumcision is not something physical and external. ²⁹The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.