I Judge Myself By My Intentions, and I Judge You By Your Actions

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Romans 2:1-5

2 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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

 
 

Paul closed chapter 1 with a long indictment of pagan sin. The Gentiles come off looking really badly!

But then Paul pivots and holds up a mirror to an as-yet-unspecified, imaginary Jewish interlocutor. Paul says, “Don’t think you are any better, Mr. Jewish guy.”

Yes, the Jews had God’s Law revealed to them at Mt. Sinai, but how were they actually abiding by it? After condemning Gentile sinfulness, Paul will now pivot and show how Jews aren’t actually any better.

Paul’s point here is one that I find convicting: we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and other people by their actions—we give ourselves a pass for the very same sins that we point out in others.

He then says (v. 4) that if your sins haven’t yet caught up with you, that’s only because God is showing you forbearance because he wants to give you time to repent!

Sooner or later, every person will face judgment; no one gets to avoid it.