February 16th, 2012
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

The Trap

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Opening Prayer

Gracious God, I come before You with all my confusions. I need correction and encouragement, stimulation and assurance.

Read Romans 2:1-16

[1] You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. [2] Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. [3] So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? [4] Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? [5] But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. [6] God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” [7] To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. [8] But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. [9] There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; [10] but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. [11] For God does not show favoritism. [12] All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. [13] For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. [14] (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, [15] since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) [16] This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“All the restlessness, pleasure-seeking, and escapism that mark the life of humankind in every age and all the world over, are symptomatic of judicial estrangement from God” (John Stott).

Think Further

Most English translations leave out the idiomatic “O man” with which Paul began this section, taking on the style of a popular preacher haranguing someone in the crowd as he enters into debate with an imagined reader, and attacking his hypocrisy. Did you fall into the trap? The point is not that the imaginary (Jewish) reader is accused of idolatry and homosexuality, but that he is quick to judge others while blind to his own sin. The NRSV translation of “O man” as “whoever you are” presses the point home. Paul is speaking to me, too. Now we see that yesterday’s reading is not so much Paul inveighing against the moral degeneracy of his time (though he does that) as Paul setting up the hearer/reader of the letter to be caught in the act of hypocrisy. It is the first step in the argument that will lead to the categorical statement in 3:19,20.

Paul makes two other salient points. Notice what he says in vs. 6 to 8. It is all too easy for our confidence in justification by faith (which he will elaborate on in the coming chapters) to lead us to carelessness about how we live in the present. Do we presume on God’s “kindness, tolerance and patience” (4)? Just because I have not experienced his judgment in the present, do I assume that I will be immune to it in the future?

This is Paul’s main point: when it comes to our standing before God, it makes no difference who we are, Jew or Gentile. Or, for that matter, Catholic or Protestant, or even Christian or pagan (14). (If you question this, see Matt. 12:41,42). And Paul has much more to say on this in what we’ll read in the days ahead!

Apply

Let God’s Word speak to you and challenge you personally today. Have you ever presumed on God’s “kindness, tolerance and patience”?

Closing prayer

Lord, forgive me that to escape judgment from You, I sometimes point the finger at others. Help me understand that when I criticize others, I condemn myself.

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