Twenty - Romans - 2

2:1  Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defense, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things.

2:2  And we know that God's judgment falls unerringly upon those who do them.

2:3  You who judge those that do such things and yet are yourself guilty of them--do you suppose that you of all men will escape God's judgement?

2:4  Or do you think lightly of his abundant kindness, patience, and forbearance, not realizing that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

2:5  Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself Wrath on the 'Day of Wrath,' when God's justice as a judge will be revealed;

2:6  For 'he will give to every man what his actions deserve.'

2:7  To those who, by perseverance in doing good, aim at glory, honor, and all that is imperishable, he will give Immortal Life;

2:8  While as to those who are factious, and disobedient to Truth but obedient to Evil, wrath and anger, distress and despair,

2:9  Will fall upon every human being who persists in wrong-doing- -upon the Jew first, but also upon the Greek.

2:10  But there will be glory, honor, and peace for every one who does right--for the Jew first, but also for the Greek,

2:11  Since God shows no partiality.

2:12  All who, when they sin, are without Law will also perish without Law; while all who, when they sin, are under Law, will be judged as being under Law.

2:13  It is not those who hear the words of a Law that are righteous before God, but it is those who obey it that will be pronounced righteous.

2:14  When Gentiles, who have no Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they, though they have no Law, are a Law to themselves;

2:15  For they show the demands of the Law written upon their hearts; their consciences corroborating it, while in their thoughts they argue either in self-accusation or, it may be, in self- defense--

2:16  On the day when God passes judgement on men's inmost lives, as the Good News that I tell declares that he will do through Christ Jesus.

2:17  But, perhaps, you bear the name of 'Jew,' and are relying upon Law, and boast of belonging to God, and understand his will,

2:18  And, having been carefully instructed from the Law, have learned to appreciate the finer moral distinctions.

2:19  Perhaps you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in the dark, an instructor of the unintelligent,

2:20  And a teacher of the childish, because in the Law you possess the outline of all Knowledge and Truth.

2:21  Why, then, you teacher of others, do not you teach yourself? Do you preach against stealing, and yet steal?

2:22  Do you forbid adultery, and yet commit adultery? Do you loathe idols, and yet plunder temples?

2:23  Boasting, as you do, of your Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

2:24  For, as Scripture says--'The name of God is reviled among the Gentiles because of you'!

2:25  Circumcision has its value, if you are obeying the Law. But, if you are a breaker of the Law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision.

2:26  If, then, an uncircumcised man pays regard to the requirements of the Law, will not he, although not circumcised, be regarded by God as if he were?

2:27  Indeed, the man who, owing to his birth, remains uncircumcised, and yet scrupulously obeys the Law, will condemn you, who, for all your written Law and your circumcision, are yet a breaker of the Law.

2:28  For a man who is only a Jew outwardly is not a real Jew; nor is outward bodily circumcision real circumcision. The real Jew is the man who is a Jew in soul;

2:29  And the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal thing. Such a man wins praise from God, though not from men.