Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 2

Paul changes his style here as he enters into dialogue with an imagined questioner who has absorbed what was said up to this point and who shows by his attitude that he is in hearty agreement with the exposure of Gentile wickedness. That Paul had experienced such encounters in his missionary preaching is hardly open to doubt.

A Jewish listener, heartily endorsing the verdict rendered concerning the Gentiles, fails to realize his own plight. True judgment rests on the ability to discern the facts in a given case. If one is able to see the sin and hopelessness of the Gentile, one should logically be able to see himself or herself as being in the same predicament. But such people are so taken up with the faults of others that they often do not consider their own failures (cf. Matthew 7:2–5). The charge that those who pass judgment do the same things they see in others is enlarged in 2:17–24. The allegation “you... do the same things” stings, for the word “do” is the term used in 1:32 for the practices of the sinful Gentile.

Paul repeats himself in v.2. As he moves to state the first of his principles of divine judgment, he carries the observer with him. Surely this person will agree (“we know”) that when God pronounces judgment on those who make a practice of indulging in sin, his judgment is based on truth. By this Paul simply means that God’s judgment is reached on the basis of reality, not on appearances. He then asks (v.3): “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” Two words are emphatic here, “think” and “you.” Paul is reading the inmost thoughts of the Jew, whom he understands thoroughly from his own pre-Christian experience.

Paul carries the probing deeper still (v.4) by suggesting that people ignore and despise the fact that God, to be true to himself, must bring sin into judgment. There is even a scornful attitude toward God’s patience with his people Israel, as though that forbearance confirmed their security, if not signaled weakness on God’s part. “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God’s kindness toward Israel, noted here, is noted again in Ro 11:22.

In this passage “tolerance” and “patience” seem to be explanatory of “kindness,” which is repeated as the governing thought. “Tolerance” (GK 496) has the idea of self-restraint. “Patience” (GK 3429) is literally “longspiritedness.” The intent of the kindness is to give opportunity for “repentance” (cf. 2 Peter 3:9, 15), a term that occurs only here in Romans, though it must have been often on Paul’s lips in preaching (Acts 20:21).

Paul changes his style here as he enters into dialogue with an imagined questioner who has absorbed what was said up to this point and who shows by his attitude that he is in hearty agreement with the exposure of Gentile wickedness. That Paul had experienced such encounters in his missionary preaching is hardly open to doubt.

A Jewish listener, heartily endorsing the verdict rendered concerning the Gentiles, fails to realize his own plight. True judgment rests on the ability to discern the facts in a given case. If one is able to see the sin and hopelessness of the Gentile, one should logically be able to see himself or herself as being in the same predicament. But such people are so taken up with the faults of others that they often do not consider their own failures (cf. Matthew 7:2–5). The charge that those who pass judgment do the same things they see in others is enlarged in 2:17–24. The allegation “you... do the same things” stings, for the word “do” is the term used in 1:32 for the practices of the sinful Gentile.

Paul repeats himself in v.2. As he moves to state the first of his principles of divine judgment, he carries the observer with him. Surely this person will agree (“we know”) that when God pronounces judgment on those who make a practice of indulging in sin, his judgment is based on truth. By this Paul simply means that God’s judgment is reached on the basis of reality, not on appearances. He then asks (v.3): “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” Two words are emphatic here, “think” and “you.” Paul is reading the inmost thoughts of the Jew, whom he understands thoroughly from his own pre-Christian experience.

Paul carries the probing deeper still (v.4) by suggesting that people ignore and despise the fact that God, to be true to himself, must bring sin into judgment. There is even a scornful attitude toward God’s patience with his people Israel, as though that forbearance confirmed their security, if not signaled weakness on God’s part. “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God’s kindness toward Israel, noted here, is noted again in Ro 11:22.

In this passage “tolerance” and “patience” seem to be explanatory of “kindness,” which is repeated as the governing thought. “Tolerance” (GK 496) has the idea of self-restraint. “Patience” (GK 3429) is literally “longspiritedness.” The intent of the kindness is to give opportunity for “repentance” (cf. 2 Peter 3:9, 15), a term that occurs only here in Romans, though it must have been often on Paul’s lips in preaching (Acts 20:21).

Paul changes his style here as he enters into dialogue with an imagined questioner who has absorbed what was said up to this point and who shows by his attitude that he is in hearty agreement with the exposure of Gentile wickedness. That Paul had experienced such encounters in his missionary preaching is hardly open to doubt.

A Jewish listener, heartily endorsing the verdict rendered concerning the Gentiles, fails to realize his own plight. True judgment rests on the ability to discern the facts in a given case. If one is able to see the sin and hopelessness of the Gentile, one should logically be able to see himself or herself as being in the same predicament. But such people are so taken up with the faults of others that they often do not consider their own failures (cf. Matthew 7:2–5). The charge that those who pass judgment do the same things they see in others is enlarged in 2:17–24. The allegation “you... do the same things” stings, for the word “do” is the term used in 1:32 for the practices of the sinful Gentile.

Paul repeats himself in v.2. As he moves to state the first of his principles of divine judgment, he carries the observer with him. Surely this person will agree (“we know”) that when God pronounces judgment on those who make a practice of indulging in sin, his judgment is based on truth. By this Paul simply means that God’s judgment is reached on the basis of reality, not on appearances. He then asks (v.3): “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” Two words are emphatic here, “think” and “you.” Paul is reading the inmost thoughts of the Jew, whom he understands thoroughly from his own pre-Christian experience.

Paul carries the probing deeper still (v.4) by suggesting that people ignore and despise the fact that God, to be true to himself, must bring sin into judgment. There is even a scornful attitude toward God’s patience with his people Israel, as though that forbearance confirmed their security, if not signaled weakness on God’s part. “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God’s kindness toward Israel, noted here, is noted again in Ro 11:22.

In this passage “tolerance” and “patience” seem to be explanatory of “kindness,” which is repeated as the governing thought. “Tolerance” (GK 496) has the idea of self-restraint. “Patience” (GK 3429) is literally “longspiritedness.” The intent of the kindness is to give opportunity for “repentance” (cf. 2 Peter 3:9, 15), a term that occurs only here in Romans, though it must have been often on Paul’s lips in preaching (Acts 20:21).

Paul changes his style here as he enters into dialogue with an imagined questioner who has absorbed what was said up to this point and who shows by his attitude that he is in hearty agreement with the exposure of Gentile wickedness. That Paul had experienced such encounters in his missionary preaching is hardly open to doubt.

A Jewish listener, heartily endorsing the verdict rendered concerning the Gentiles, fails to realize his own plight. True judgment rests on the ability to discern the facts in a given case. If one is able to see the sin and hopelessness of the Gentile, one should logically be able to see himself or herself as being in the same predicament. But such people are so taken up with the faults of others that they often do not consider their own failures (cf. Matthew 7:2–5). The charge that those who pass judgment do the same things they see in others is enlarged in 2:17–24. The allegation “you... do the same things” stings, for the word “do” is the term used in 1:32 for the practices of the sinful Gentile.

Paul repeats himself in v.2. As he moves to state the first of his principles of divine judgment, he carries the observer with him. Surely this person will agree (“we know”) that when God pronounces judgment on those who make a practice of indulging in sin, his judgment is based on truth. By this Paul simply means that God’s judgment is reached on the basis of reality, not on appearances. He then asks (v.3): “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” Two words are emphatic here, “think” and “you.” Paul is reading the inmost thoughts of the Jew, whom he understands thoroughly from his own pre-Christian experience.

Paul carries the probing deeper still (v.4) by suggesting that people ignore and despise the fact that God, to be true to himself, must bring sin into judgment. There is even a scornful attitude toward God’s patience with his people Israel, as though that forbearance confirmed their security, if not signaled weakness on God’s part. “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God’s kindness toward Israel, noted here, is noted again in Ro 11:22.

In this passage “tolerance” and “patience” seem to be explanatory of “kindness,” which is repeated as the governing thought. “Tolerance” (GK 496) has the idea of self-restraint. “Patience” (GK 3429) is literally “longspiritedness.” The intent of the kindness is to give opportunity for “repentance” (cf. 2 Peter 3:9, 15), a term that occurs only here in Romans, though it must have been often on Paul’s lips in preaching (Acts 20:21).

The apostle speaks plainly in order to startle Jews out of their lethargy of self-deception. What the nation is doing by its stubbornness and impenitence is to invite retribution, which is slowly but surely building up a reservoir of divine wrath that will be crushing when it breaks over the guilty in the day of reckoning. Then the judgment will be revealed to all, in contrast to the indirect working of God’s wrath in the present scene (cf. ch. 1). At that time a second principle of divine judgment will become apparent, emphasizing performance: “to each person according to what he has done” (lit., “according to his works”). What Paul has in mind here is the final reckoning (cf. the word “day”). National judgment may fit into a temporal scheme, but personal judgment belongs to the frontier of the ages to come.

In amplifying this second principle of judgment Paul makes room for only two broad classes—those who persist in doing good and those who follow an evil course (vv.7–10). The first group, pictured as seeking glory, honor, and immortality, are promised eternal life. What can the apostle mean by his breathtaking assertion about attaining “eternal life”? At the very least, it is safe to say that he is not contradicting what he says later about the impossibility of having salvation by means of the works of the law (3:20). In fact, the statement of v.7, rightly understood, teaches the opposite. The reward of eternal life belongs to those whose good deeds result from their hope in God. Paul is simply portraying the motivation and the tenor of the life of faith that will culminate in eternal fellowship with God. The good works that believers perform do not bring them salvation, but they attest to the salvation they have received by faith (6:22; Ephesians 2:8–10).

On the other side of the ledger is a pattern of evil defined in terms of self- seeking and rejection of the truth, leading to divine wrath in terms of trouble and distress. The statement “who reject the truth and follow evil” echoes 1:18. Destiny does not depend on whether one is Jew or Gentile. The Jew is mentioned first simply because of God’s prior dealing with that nation in history. Mention of the two divisions of humankind leads naturally to the pronouncement of Paul’s third principle: God’s judgment is impartial; he “does not show favoritism” (v.11). This is the truth that Peter learned in the Cornelius incident (Acts 10:34). Paul’s explanation of what it involves belongs to the following paragraph.