“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” (Romans 2:1, KJV 1900)
Often, when I evangelize, I will ask do you think you are a good person? To which most will say of course. They basically think that they are better than others. This is a problem of moral relativism. Paul here gives an argument that combats this philosophy. He seems to be speaking of the self-righteous, the Jews who Judged the Gentiles because they considered them born in sin and therefore doers of evil. He is pointing out that they, the Jews, violate the same moral precepts by which they judged others. His argument is that as one-man judges another, his judgment establishes a moral standard. In the case of the Jews, they did the same thing as the ones they judged.
I remember one day, driving my car in downtown Savannah GA. I was in a hurry and got behind a person driving very slowly. I believe they probably were struggling with directions. Do you think I would do what any good Christian man would when driving behind a slowpoke? No, I lost my patience and sped around the person cutting them off. Yet here is the rest of the story. A couple days later, I was driving slowly and some impatient person got behind me and did the same thing to me. Now, I didn’t like it one bit and got angry at him. The point is that as I judged another, I found myself guilty a couple days earlier of the exact same thing.
Paul presents this truth. It is that every person, including the self-righteous, understands the moral standards that govern the affairs of life. This is known, because they judge others. Moreover, those who judge others violate the same moral standards, and are themselves subject to the judgment of God.
Well, I can only say one thing to this thought. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Peter 1:3, KJV 1900) Praise the Lord for apart from His mercy and grace we would all face the judgement.
Renewing the Heart 