Introduction
God’s judgements are always right.
Verses
1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practise the same things.
2We know that the judgement of God is according to truth against those who practise such things.
3Do you think this, O man who judges those who practise such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgement of God?
4Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgement of God;
6who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
8but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation,
9oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
10But glory, honour, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
11For there is no partiality with God.
12For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
13For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
14(for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts amongst themselves accusing or else excusing them)
16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.
17Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God,
18know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,
19and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.
21You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?
22You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23You who glory in the law, do you dishonour God by disobeying the law?
24For “the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.
25For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?
27Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfils the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?
28For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;
29but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.
Questions
1. What will the righteous judgement of God do?
v 5 and 6 ... the righteous judgement of God; who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
2. What does Paul say in verse 8 is the real problem with those who don't obey God?
v 8 but to those who are self-seeking, ...
3. What is in store for those who do good?
v 10 But glory, honour, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Summary Points
- v 1 to 4 We should not judge others, because we all fail to keep God’s laws ourselves
- v 5 to 16 God will judge us according to how we live. He will give eternal life to those who persevere in well doing, but bring wrath on those who don't obey the truth
- v 17 to 29 Jewish believers are not to consider themselves above Gentile believers. They may know and be able to teach others about the law that God gave them, but they can't keep it themselves. There's more to being a Jew than just circumcision
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