Our Readiness to Find Fault

A building in Ancient Rome. 

Scripture:

Rom. 2:1   Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. ² You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” ³ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But by 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. ⁶ For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: ⁷ to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹ There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.

Observation:

After Paul finishes his litany of sins in Chapter one, this second chapter begins with the the word “therefore,” connecting the previous thought with what he has to say here. Paul is condemning the religious leaders whose lives seem “to consist in their readiness to find fault with others” (NBBC). The Jews were ready to pounce on the moral perversity of the Gentiles, while smugly embracing that they were God’s chosen people. Paul was breaking down this wall of “smugness” and the ensuing critical spirit because, “behind all sins in the catalog lies the sin of suppressing the truth about God and the human ambition to put self in the place of God. This is precisely what people do when they assume the right of condemning others. Spiritual pride and censoriousness cut them off from the love of God as surely as theft or adultery. God alone is qualified to judge (see 14:4, 10, 13; Matt 7:1–5; Luke 6:37; 1 Cor 4:5)” (NBBC). 

Paul places the religious Jew in the same category as the Gentile sinner and this is repulsive to those who think highly of themselves. “They may not worship idols or engage in homosexuality; but they put their own law in the place of God and are just as guilty as Gentiles of ‘greed,’ ‘envy,’ ‘strife,’ and so on (see 1:29-31). As a result, Jews also ‘have no excuse’ (2:1), storing up wrath for the day of wrath (2:5) (ZIBBCNT).

John Chrysostom puts it this way: 

Paul argues that these people, because they have condemned themselves by their condemnation of others, will not escape the judgment of God. For how can it be reasonable if they condemn themselves and then expect God to approve of them and praise them?

Sinning, by itself, is not as serious as falling into the sins one has accused others of committing. See how Paul makes the whole thing more serious! For if you punish a person who has committed smaller sins . . . how will God not turn the tables on you and punish you who have committed greater transgressions? . . . And if you say that you know you deserve punishment but think that because God is patient with you that you will escape it and therefore do not take it seriously, this is all the more reason to fear and tremble! For the fact that you have not yet suffered punishment does not mean that you will not suffer it but that you will suffer more severely if you do not [NT Vol. VI, p. 53] repent (HOMILIES ON ROMANS 5).

In the meantime we are to continue to be engaged in doing good works through patient and active persistence. This is hope at work, and that is where the follower of Christ is to put their time and energy. Finding fault in others will simply lead you into the same sin as those whom you are condemning. 

Application:

It’s so easy to get caught up into a critical spirit. It seems as if society has raised this to an art form these days and it’s easy for those within the life of the church to get drawn into the same sport. Social media has become a place where it’s far too easy to share thoughts that we would normally keep private, and at the same time can stir up the saints. We become defensive of what we may have shared while others may feel that it’s important to police the activities of others. None of this leads to the edification of the Christian community and it’s the same problem that Paul was addressing to the church in Rome. 

It’s so easy for us to identify the sins of others that we fail to see the sins in our own lives. There’s a reason why Jesus told us, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2, NIV). He went on to say that we had a log in our own eye but were hung up on the speck in someone else’s. Isn’t that the problem? We are so quick to find fault in others and assume that their sins are much larger than anything that we might do, but at the same time, we may not be spending the time that we should in patient and active persistence in doing good. We are to be agents of God’s hope at work in this world, and it seems that when we spend our time and energy doing good that we don’t have a lot of time left over to find fault in others. 

May the prayer of our heart be that God, through the power of the Spirit, infuses us with the desire to participate in the mission of good works in this world. This will bring about transformation much more swiftly than trying to correct others whom we believe have stepped out of line. At the same time, may we ask God to open our hearts to what we may be doing that subverts the gospel of Jesus Christ. Any type of self-centered behavior will lead to a distorted view of truth. 

Prayer:

Lord, please help me to spend my energies in participating in your good in this world. Amen.