Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 2:3

"And reckonest thou this, O man, who judgest them that practise such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" — Romans 2:3 (ASV)

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).