“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. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 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?”
Romans 2:1-3
In this chapter, Paul addresses the Jews. His purpose is to prove that although they may deem themselves superior to the Gentiles and capable of judging them, they may be liable to more severe judgment; even with their unique knowledge, they committed the same sins. Paul, himself had previously persecuted both Jew and gentile believers. Josephus, a first-century Jewish priest, scholar, and historian, stated that there was not a nation under heaven more wicked than the Jewish nation.
God will judge men not by their confession but by their works. Those who are harshest in condemning others are often guilty of the same sins, even though they find some excuse that justifies their shortcomings.
The judgment that Paul is referring to is the act of distinguishing or separating one person from the other. It is to pronounce an opinion concerning right and wrong about others when we do not do the same concerning ourselves. This issue dates back to the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve desired the ability to know good and evil. The very thing to which God said no. The immediate result was pointing their finger at someone else’s sin while justifying their own.
Let’s consider these words from James 1:22-25; “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
We would do well by leaving judgment to God and dealing with our sins.