Romans 2

1 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defence, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things.

2 We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

And we know that God’s judgment falls unerringly on those who do them.

3 Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

You who judge those that do such things and yet are yourself guilty of them – do you suppose that you of all people will escape God’s judgment?

4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Or do you think lightly of his abundant kindness, patience, and forbearance, not realising that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

5 But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God,

Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath, when God’s justice as a judge will be revealed;

6 who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”

for he will give to everyone what their actions deserve.

7 to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; (aiōnios g166)

To those who, by perseverance in doing good, aim at glory, honour, and all that is imperishable, he will give immortal life; (aiōnios g166)

8 but to those who are self-seeking and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation,

while as to those who are factious, and disobedient to truth but obedient to evil, wrath and anger, distress and despair,

9 oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

will fall on every human being who persists in wrongdoing – on the Jew first, but also on the Greek.

10 But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

But there will be glory, honour, and peace for everyone who does right – for the Jew first, but also for the Greek,

11 For there is no partiality with God.

since God shows no partiality.

12 For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

All who, when they sin, are without Law will also perish without Law; while all who, when they sin, are under Law, will be judged as being under Law.

13 For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified

It is not those who hear the words of a Law that are righteous before God, but it is those who obey it that will be pronounced righteous.

14 (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,

When Gentiles, who have no Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they, though they have no Law, are a Law to themselves;

15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)

for they show the demands of the Law written on their hearts; their consciences corroborating it, while in their thoughts they argue either in self-accusation or, it may be, in self-defence –

16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.

on the day when God passes judgment on people’s inmost lives, as the good news that I tell declares that he will do through Christ Jesus.

17 Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God,

But, perhaps, you bear the name of “Jew,” and are relying on Law, and boast of belonging to God, and understand his will,

18 know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

and, having been carefully instructed from the Law, have learned to appreciate the finer moral distinctions.

19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

Perhaps you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in the dark, an instructor of the unintelligent,

20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

and a teacher of the childish, because in the Law you possess the outline of all knowledge and truth.

21 You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?

Why, then, you teacher of others, don’t you teach yourself? Do you preach against stealing, and yet steal?

22 You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

Do you forbid adultery, and yet commit adultery? Do you loathe idols, and yet plunder temples?

23 You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law?

Boasting, as you do, of your Law, do you dishonour God by breaking the Law?

24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.

For, as scripture says – “The Gentiles insult God’s name because of you”!

25 For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Circumcision has its value, if you are obeying the Law. But, if you are a breaker of the Law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision.

26 If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?

If, then, an uncircumcised man pays regard to the requirements of the Law, won’t he, although not circumcised, be regarded by God as if he were?

27 Won’t those who are physically uncircumcised, but fulfill the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

Indeed, the person who, owing to his birth, remains uncircumcised, and yet scrupulously obeys the Law, will condemn you, who, for all your written Law and your circumcision, are yet a breaker of the Law.

28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

For a man who is only a Jew outwardly is not a real Jew; nor is outward bodily circumcision real circumcision. The real Jew is the person who is a Jew in soul;

29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

and the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal thing. Such a person wins praise from God, though not from people.