Romans
2
- 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.
- Now we know that God's judgment against
those who do such things is based on truth.
- 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
?
- Or do you show contempt for the riches of
his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads
you toward repentance ?
- 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.
- God "will give to each person according
to what he has done."
- To those who by persistence in doing good
seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
- But for those who are self-seeking and who
reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
- There will be trouble and distress for every
human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
- but glory, honor and peace for everyone
who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
- For God does not show favoritism.
- 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.
- 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.
- (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,
- 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.)
- This will take place on the day when God
will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
- Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if
you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
- if you know his will and approve of what
is superior because you are instructed by the law;
- if you are convinced that you are a guide
for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
- an instructor of the foolish, a teacher
of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth
--
- you, then, who teach others, do you not
teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal
?
- You who say that people should not commit
adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples
?
- You who brag about the law, do you dishonor
God by breaking the law ?
- As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed
among the Gentiles because of you."
- Circumcision has value if you observe the
law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been
circumcised.
- If those who are not circumcised keep the
law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised
?
- The one who is not circumcised physically
and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written
code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
- A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly,
nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
- No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly;
and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written
code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.
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