therefore you have no excuse, o man, every one of you who judges. for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. [romans 2:1]
judgement belongs to God alone
can we trust a judge who is himself a known criminal?
there is a clear injustice in a judge convicting a defendant of theft, when we all know that same judge committed the same theft. judges are expected to have a clean record before judging others and handing down a sentence. it is simply assumed they are clear of guilt, know all the facts, and make a sound judgement.
in this verse, paul is calling out ‘judges’ who are themselves guilty of a crime. judges who don’t know all the facts of the case. paul’s audience is the church, and those who would judge others from a position of self-righteousness.
but what is the difference between discerning and calling out sin (as paul does in chapter 1) and judging others for sin (as paul tells us not to do)?
what is therefore there for?
the word ‘therefore’ is important in why and how paul makes this argument.
‘therefore’ is a conclusion to whatever has just been said before it; something like, “i jumped in the pool. therefore, I got wet.
in this case, paul’s ‘therefore’ refers to romans 1:19-32. in that passage, paul refers to ‘they’, and all the horrible sinful acts ‘they’ are committing. paul’s ‘they’ are non-believers who commit all kinds of culturally acceptable sins that were common in rome.
after reading these horrible sinful acts, we may expect a ‘therefore’ that puffs us up while pushing others down, such as:
‘therefore, they are condemned’,
‘therefore, you can judge them’,
‘therefore, you are better than them’, or even
‘therefore, they are not welcome in your church’.
this may have been expected from those who had always done things ’right’.
scripture says no.
paul points to the truth that we are all guilty of sin. being good, even being saved do not make us somehow better than the people around us. are merely saved by God’s grace from our own sin. we get to live in the joy of salvation in spite of our sinfulness, and nothing we do makes us worthy of it. it is all God’s mercy.
we can’t behave our way out of wrath any more than we can expect others engaged in sinful acts to behave their way out.
we discern what is sin, but we are not the judge of sin.
we are not the judges – we are the redeemed.
~ jason soroski