Chapter 2

Judging Is Inexcusable. ¹ Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you may be, when you pass judgment on others. For in judging others you condemn yourself, since you are doing the same things. ² We are all aware that God’s judgment on those who commit such deeds is just. ³ How can you then suppose that you will escape the judgment of God for doing such things when you are condemning those who perform the same things?

⁴ How can you despise the riches of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience? How can you fail to realize that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ By your obstinate refusal to repent you are storing up retribution for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁶ For God will repay everyone in accordance with what his deeds deserve.^{[a] 7} To those who seek after glory and honor and immortality by persevering in good works, he will grant eternal life. ⁸ But for those who are slaves to selfish ambition and follow the path of wickedness and not of truth, wrath and fury will be their lot.

⁹ There will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil—Jews first and then Gentiles. ¹⁰ However, glory, honor, and peace await everyone who does good—Jews first, and then Gentiles. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.^[b]

¹² The Law and Conscience.^[c] All those who have sinned outside the Law will perish outside the Law, and all who sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law. ¹³ For it is not those who hear the Law who are justified by God; rather, it is those who observe the Law who will be justified. ¹⁴ Therefore, when Gentiles, who do not have the Law, act by nature in conformity with the Law, they are a law for themselves, even though they have no Law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the Law are inscribed in their hearts; and their own conscience will also bear witness for them, since their conflicting thoughts will accuse or even defend them^{[d] 16} on the day when, according to the gospel, God will judge the thoughts of all through Jesus Christ.

^17 [e]You call yourself a Jew and rely on the Law and are proud of your relationship to God, ¹⁸ and you know his will and are able to distinguish between right and wrong because you have been instructed in the Law, ¹⁹ and you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light for those in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, and a teacher of the simple because in the Law you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

²¹ You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, are you yourself a thief? ²² You who forbid adultery, are you yourself an adulterer? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? ²³ You who boast of the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking it? ²⁴ As it is written, “Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles.”

²⁵ Circumcision and the Heart.^[f] Circumcision has value if you obey the Law. However, if you break the Law, you have become as if you had never been circumcised. ²⁶ In the same way, if one who is not circumcised keeps the precepts of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then the man who is not physically circumcised but nevertheless observes the Law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the Law.

²⁸ A man is not a Jew who is only one outwardly, nor is true circumcision external and physical. ²⁹ Rather, the Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly, and true circumcision is of the heart—spiritual, not literal. He receives his praise not from human beings but from God.