2:1 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. (Romans 2:1-5 (ESV)
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who
judges. For in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you,
the judge, practice the very same things. “ There is an amazing simplicity to
this. When you judge, you make yourself guilty, because you do the same things.
Paul doesn’t even have to analyze you as an individual. He doesn’t need to know
you personally, he knows the nature of sin, he knows the law, and he
understands the judgmental heart.
At the same time, I think it is worth pointing out that this
is true of those who judge others for judging too. We tend to be unforgiving of
hypocrites, and we are right to point out hypocrisy, but we should be aware
that we ourselves are not free from that particular sin. We are sinners and
sinners sin. It’s why we need Jesus, it is why Jesus doesn’t love just some
sinners who sin in this way and not that way, but all sinners because all
sinners are hypocrites in need of salvation. If he was to begin choosing
sinners based on sinners that sin in this way and not that way, he would end up
excluding all sinners. So instead he includes you with everyone else.
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