Week 4 - Tuesday

The Religious or Moral Person

Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. (Romans 2:1)

In Romans 1:18-32 Paul explained the reasons why people who reject God will be condemned by Him. Even unbelieving God rejecters have a basic knowledge of God through His natural revelations to man (Rom. 1:18-20) and a sense of right and wrong by their conscience. Most religious or moral people would agree with Paul, that those who reject God and continue to go deeper into sin deserve God's wrath. However God's judgment is not against the immoral God rejecters only. There is another group of people who are just as guilty. In chapter 2 of Romans, Paul moves his focus away from the God rejecters to people who think they are moral or claim to believe in God. Paul warns them that they too, may be in danger of being condemned. Many of the Jews of Paul's day were very religious. From the time they were children they had been taught God's law. However just knowing God's law isn't enough. In fact the more a person knows about God's law, the more accountable they are to obey it. The religious Jews made at least an outward effort to keep some of God's laws. They mistakingly believed though, that because they were God's chosen people, they were assured of going to heaven . They thought they might receive some punishment on earth for their sins but believed they would never be condemned by God. In reality, just the opposite was true. Because they were His specially chosen people, the Jews were even more obligated to obey God, and would be even more severely punished by God (than the unbelieving Gentiles) if they did not (Amos 3:1-2).Another fault many of the Jews had, was that they were critical of the sins of others. Instead of using what they knew to lead unbelievers to God, they had developed the attitude of thinking they were better than them. Here in chapter 2, Paul warns the religious or moral person, that if they judge others and sin themselves, they are without excuse.

This same principle applies to people who claim to be Christians. All people are sinners (Rom 3:23). That's the reason we need a Savior. However no one has any excuse for their sins and Christians are more without excuse for their sins than others. The more a person knows about God's law, the more responsible they are to obey it. When we self-righteously judge people, we condemn ourselves because we are sinners too and we practice the same things as those we are judging. We may not commit the same exact sins as those we judge, but we do sin and God hates it all. If it were not for God's grace in saving us, who knows what kinds of things we could be doing now. The truth is that we are in as much need of God's mercy as those we judge as being sinful. Maybe more so, since self-righteousness is one of the ugliest sins of all. Instead of looking down on others and criticizing them, we should be doing what we can to help them. How much better it would be to come alongside them, with genuine love and concern, and gently try to show them the error of their ways. Maybe then God would use us, to help lead them to Christ.

Readings for today: Luke 18:10-12; Matt. 7:1-5; Rom. 14:10; 2 Tim. 2:25