Romans 2
Revised Geneva Translation
2 Therefore, you are without excuse, O man. Whoever you are who judges! For in whatever you judge another, you judge yourself. For you who judge do the same things.
2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth, against those who commit such things.
3 And do you think, O man - who judges those who do such things and yet does the same - that you shall escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you think so little of the riches of His bountifulness and patience and long suffering, not knowing that the bountifulness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But you, because of your hardness and unrepentant heart, are laying up a treasure of wrath for yourself on the Day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God,
6 Who will reward everyone according to his works
7 (indeed, everlasting life to those who, through patience in well-doing, seek glory and honor and immortality,
8 but to those who are contentious and disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath).
9 Tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soul of every man who does evil –the Jew first and also the Greek.
10 But glory and honor and peace shall be to everyone who does good - to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no partiality with God.
12 For as many as have sinned without the Law, shall also perish without the Law. And as many as have sinned in the Law, shall be judged by the Law,
13 (For the hearers of the Law are not righteous before God. But the doers of the Law shall be justified.
14 For when the Gentiles, who do not have the Law, instinctively do the things contained in the Law, then they - not having the Law - are a Law unto themselves,
15 who show the effect of the Law written on their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts accusing one another, or excusing)
16 on the day when God shall judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel.
17 Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the Law, and glory in God.
18 And you know His will, and test the things which dissent from it, being instructed by the Law.
19 And you persuade yourself that you are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 an instructor of those who lack discretion; a teacher of the unlearned, who has the semblance of knowledge and truth in the Law.
21 You therefore, who teaches another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
22 You who say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege?
23 You who glory in the Law, through breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?
24 For “the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you”, as it is written.
25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the Law. But if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26 Therefore, if the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27 And shall not the naturally uncircumcised (if he keeps the Law) condemn those who, being under the letter and circumcision, are transgressors of the Law?
28 For no one is a Jew outwardly. Nor is circumcision outward, in the flesh.
29 But he is a Jew who is one within. And circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit (not in the letter) whose praise is not from man, but from God.
Romans 2
The Message
God Is Kind, but Not Soft
2 1-2 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.
3-4 You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.
5-8 You’re not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment. Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you—Real Life for those who work on God’s side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!
9-11 If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.
12-13 If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely. Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.
14-16 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.
Religion Can’t Save You
17-24 If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t steal!” are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders frown on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.
25-29 Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with God’s law. But if you don’t, it’s worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true: The uncircumcised who keep God’s ways are as good as the circumcised—in fact, better. Better to keep God’s law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don’t you see: It’s not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It’s the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.
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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.
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Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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.
