Judged By What You Do With What You Have Been Given

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Romans 2:12-16

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

 
 

“The Law” is Paul’s shorthand way of referring to the entire Old Testament, specifically the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament that God gave Moses in the wilderness so that the Israelites would know how to live as God’s people.

So, the Gentiles are those “without the Law” and the Jews are those “under the Law.” Paul’s point here is that, both Gentiles and Jews will be judged by what they actually do with what they know. The Gentiles have their conscience—“the Law…written on their hearts”—and the Jews have the Torah; what matters is what people do with what they’ve been given.

So, Paul tells the Romans that on Judgment Day, all people will be judged by Jesus, regardless of their ethnic status.

It is tempting for us to want to know about other people—“What will happen to this person, or that person?” What Paul reminds me here, however, is that the only thing that matters is what I am doing with what I have been given. I’ll trust other people to God’s justice and mercy— how am I responding to what I know about God?

What about you?