Romans 2
New Living Translation
God’s Judgment of Sin
2 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done. 7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. 9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.[a] 10 But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
12 When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. 13 For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. 14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. 16 And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.
The Jews and the Law
17 You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. 18 You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. 19 You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. 20 You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth.
21 Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? 22 You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples?[b] 23 You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. 24 No wonder the Scriptures say, “The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.”[c]
25 The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. 26 And if the Gentiles obey God’s law, won’t God declare them to be his own people? 27 In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God’s law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God’s law but don’t obey it.
28 For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. 29 No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise[d] from God, not from people.
Romans 2
1599 Geneva Bible
2 1 He bringeth all before the judgment seat of God. 12 The excuse the Gentiles might pretend, 14 of ignorance, he taketh quite away. 17 He urgeth the Jews with the written Law, 23 in which they boasted. 27 And so maketh both Jew and Gentile alike.
1 Therefore [a]thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that condemnest: for in that thou condemnest another, thou condemnest thyself: for thou that condemnest, doest the same things.
2 But we [b]know that the judgment of God is according to [c]truth, against them which commit such things.
3 And thinkest thou this, O thou man, that condemnest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
4 [d]Or despisest thou the riches of his bountifulness, and patience, and long sufferance, not knowing that the bountifulness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
5 But thou, after thine hardness, and heart that cannot repent, (A)[e]heapest up as a treasure unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and of the declaration of the just judgment of God,
6 (B)[f]Who will reward every man according to his works:
7 That is, to them which through patience in well doing, seek [g]glory, and honor, and immortality, everlasting life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and disobey the [h]truth, and obey unrighteousness, shall be [i]indignation and wrath.
9 Tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soul of every man that doeth evil: of the Jew first, and also of the Grecian.
10 But to every man that doeth good, shall be glory, and honor, and peace: to the Jew first, and also to the Grecian.
11 For there is [j]no respect of persons with God.
12 [k]For as many as have sinned without the Law, shall perish also without the Law: and as many as have sinned in the Law, shall be judged by the Law,
13 [l](For the hearers of the Law are not righteous before God: but the doers of the Law shall be [m]justified.
14 [n]For when the Gentiles which have [o]not the Law, do by [p]nature the things contained in the Law, they having not the Law, are a Law unto themselves,
15 Which show the effect of the Law [q]written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts accusing one another, or excusing.)
16 [r]At the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to [s]my Gospel.
17 ¶ [t]Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the Law, and gloriest in God,
18 And knowest his will, and [u][v]triest the things that dissent from it, in that thou art instructed by the Law:
19 And persuadest thyself that thou art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
20 An instructor of them which lack discretion, a teacher of the unlearned, which hast the [w]form of knowledge, and of the truth in the [x]law.
21 Thou therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest, A man should not steal, dost thou steal?
22 Thou that sayest, A man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, committest thou sacrilege?
23 Thou that gloriest in the Law, through breaking the Law, dishonorest thou God?
24 For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, (C)as it is written.
25 [y]For circumcision verily is profitable, if thou do the Law: but if thou be a transgressor of the Law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26 Therefore [z]if the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the Law, shall not his [aa]uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
27 And shall not [ab]uncircumcision which is by nature (if it keep the Law) condemn thee which by the [ac]letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the Law?
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one [ad]outward: neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew which is one within, and the circumcision is of the heart, in the [ae]spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Footnotes
- Romans 2:1 He convinceth them which would seem to be exempt out of the number of other men, because they reprehend other men’s faults, and saith that they are least of all to be excused, for if they were well and narrowly searched (as God surely doth) they themselves would be found guilty in those things which they reprehend, and punish in others: so that in condemning others they pronounce sentence against themselves.
- Romans 2:2 Paul allegeth no places of Scripture, for he reasoneth generally against all men: but he bringeth such reasons as every man is persuaded of in his mind, so that the devil himself is not able to pluck them clean out.
- Romans 2:2 Considering and judging things aright, and not by any outward show.
- Romans 2:4 A vehement and grievous crying out against them that please themselves, because they see more than others do, and yet are no whit better than others are.
- Romans 2:5 Whilst thou givest thyself to pleasures, thinking to increase thy goods, thou shalt find God’s wrath.
- Romans 2:6 The ground of the former disputation, That both the Jews and Gentiles have together need of righteousness.
- Romans 2:7 Glory which followeth good works, which he layeth not out before us, as though there were any that could attain to salvation by his own strength, but, by laying this condition of salvation before us, which no man can perform, to bring men to Christ, who alone justified the believers, as he himself concludeth, Rom. 2:21-22, following.
- Romans 2:8 By truth, he meaneth that knowledge which we have of nature.
- Romans 2:8 God’s indignation against sinners, which shall quickly be kindled.
- Romans 2:11 God doth not measure men either by their blood, or by their country, either to receive them, or to cast them away.
- Romans 2:12 He applieth that general accusation of mankind particularly both to the Gentiles, and to the Jews.
- Romans 2:13 He preventeth an objection which might be made by the Jews, whom the Law doth not excuse, but condemns, because that not the hearing of the Law, but the keeping of the Law doth justify.
- Romans 2:13 Shall be pronounced just before God’s judgment seat: which is true indeed, if any such could be found that had fulfilled the law: but seeing Abraham was not justified by the Law, but by faith, it followeth that no man can be justified by works.
- Romans 2:14 He preventeth an objection which might be made by the Gentiles, who although they have not the Law of Moses, yet they have no reason whereby they may excuse their wickedness in that they have somewhat written in their hearts instead of a Law, as men that forbid, and punish some things as wicked, and command and commend other some as good.
- Romans 2:14 Not simply, but in comparison of the Jews.
- Romans 2:14 Command honest things, and forbid dishonest.
- Romans 2:15 This knowledge is a natural knowledge.
- Romans 2:16 God deferreth many judgments, which notwithstanding he will execute at their convenient time by Jesus Christ, with a most straight examination, not only of words and deeds, but of thoughts also, be they never so hidden or secret.
- Romans 2:16 As this my doctrine witnesseth, which I am appointed to preach.
- Romans 2:17 He proveth by the testimony of David, and the other Prophets, that God bestowed greatest benefits upon the Jews, in giving them also the Law, but that they are the most unthankful and unkindest of all men.
- Romans 2:18 Canst try and discern what things swerve from God’s will.
- Romans 2:18 Or allowest the things that are excellent.
- Romans 2:20 The way to teach and frame others in the knowledge of the truth.
- Romans 2:20 As though he said, that the Jews under a color of an outward serving of God, challenged all to themselves, when as indeed, they did nothing less than observe the Law.
- Romans 2:25 He precisely preventeth their objection, which set an holiness in circumcision, and the outward observation of the Law: So that he showeth that the outward circumcision, if it be separated from the inward, doth not only not justify, but also condemns them that are indeed circumcised, of whom requireth that, which is signifieth, that is to say, cleanness of the heart and the whole life, according to the commandment of the Law, so that if there be a man uncircumcised according to the flesh, who is circumcised in heart, he is far better and more to be more accounted of, than any Jew that is circumcised according to the flesh only.
- Romans 2:26 This is the figure Metonymy, for, if the uncircumcised.
- Romans 2:26 The state and condition of the uncircumcised.
- Romans 2:27 He which is uncircumcised by nature and blood.
- Romans 2:27 Paul useth oftentimes to set the letter against the Spirit: but in this place, the circumcision which is according to the letter, is the cutting off of the foreskin, but the circumcision of the Spirit, is the circumcision of the heart, that is to say, the spiritual end of the ceremony, is true holiness and righteousness whereby the people of God is known from profane and heathenish men.
- Romans 2:28 By the outward ceremony only.
- Romans 2:29 Whose force is inward, and in the heart.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
