1 Therefore you are without excuse, you person, you who judge, for what you judge in another you condemn in yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. 2 But we know that God's judgment is according to truth when it falls on those who practice such things. 3 But consider this, you person, you who judge those who practice such things although you do the same things. Will you escape from the judgment of God? 4 Or do you think so little of the riches of his goodness, his delayed punishment, and his patience? Do you not know that his goodness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But it is to the extent of your hardness and unrepentant heart that you are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath, that is, the day of the revelation of God's righteous judgment. 6 He will pay back to every person according to his actions: 7 to those who according to consistent, good actions have sought praise, honor, and incorruptibility, he will give eternal life. 8 But to those who are self-seeking, who disobey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath and fierce anger will come. 9 God will bring tribulation and distress on every human soul that has practiced evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 10 But praise, honor, and peace will come to everyone who practices good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no favoritism with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned with respect to the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, they are a law to themselves, although they do not have the law. 15 By this they show that the actions required by the law are written in their hearts. Their conscience also bears witness to them, and their own thoughts either accuse or defend them to themselves 16 and also to God. That will happen on the day when God will judge the secrets of all people, according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ. 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest upon the law and boast in God, 18 and know his will and approve of what is excellent because you have been instructed from the law; 19 and if you are convinced that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of little children, and that you have in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth, then how does this affect the way you live your life? 21 You who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who hate idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it has been written. 25 For circumcision indeed benefits you if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 If, then, the uncircumcised person keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be considered as circumcision? 27 And will not the one who is naturally uncircumcised condemn you if he keeps the law? This is because you have the written law and circumcision, yet you break the law! 28 For he is not a Jew who is merely one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is merely outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter. The praise of such a person comes not from people but from God.
Romans · Unlocked Literal Bible
Romans 2 Unlocked Literal Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (29)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Luke 6:37; Romans 2:3; John 8:7–9; Romans 2:21–23; Matthew 7:1–5
- 2 Psalm 9:7–8; Zephaniah 3:5; Psalm 145:17; Jeremiah 12:1; Psalm 98:9
- 3 Proverbs 16:5; Luke 12:14; Romans 1:32–2:1; Matthew 23:33; Matthew 26:53
- 4 2 Peter 3:9; Isaiah 30:18; Exodus 34:6; Titus 3:4–6; Romans 9:22–23
- 5 Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 1:18; Romans 2:2–3; Hebrews 3:15; 2 Peter 3:7
- 6 Psalm 62:12; Jeremiah 32:19; Matthew 16:27; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Jeremiah 17:10
- 7 2 Timothy 4:7–8; Luke 8:15; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 2:10–11
- 8 1 Timothy 6:3–4; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; John 3:18–21; 1 Peter 4:17; Proverbs 13:10
- 9 1 Peter 4:17; Romans 3:29–30; Romans 1:16; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 9:24
- 10 Isaiah 32:17; Isaiah 26:12; Numbers 6:26; 1 Peter 1:7; Romans 8:6
- 11 Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Galatians 2:6; Job 34:19
- 12 1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 3:10; Romans 2:14–16; Galatians 2:16–19; Acts 17:30–31
- 13 James 1:22–25; 1 John 3:7; James 2:21–25; Romans 2:25; Luke 8:21
- 14 Romans 1:19–20; Romans 2:12; Romans 2:27; Acts 17:30; Acts 10:35
- 15 2 Corinthians 5:11; Romans 1:18–19; 2 Corinthians 1:12; Titus 1:15; 1 Timothy 4:2
- 16 Ecclesiastes 12:14; 1 Corinthians 4:5; Acts 17:31; Acts 10:42; Luke 8:17
- 17 Romans 2:23; Micah 3:11; Isaiah 48:1–2; Revelation 2:9; Romans 9:4–7
- 18 1 Thessalonians 5:21; James 4:17; Deuteronomy 4:8; Philippians 1:10; Hebrews 5:14
- 19 Revelation 3:17–18; Isaiah 5:21; Matthew 6:23; Proverbs 26:12; 1 Corinthians 8:1–2
- 20 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:13; Romans 6:17; 1 Corinthians 3:1
- 21 1 Corinthians 9:27; Matthew 23:3–28; Luke 12:47; Micah 3:11; Titus 2:1–7
- 22 Malachi 3:8; Matthew 12:39; Jeremiah 9:2; Acts 19:37; Malachi 1:8
- 23 James 4:16–17; Romans 2:17; John 5:45; Romans 9:4; Romans 3:2
- 24 Ezekiel 36:20–23; Isaiah 52:5; 2 Peter 2:2; Lamentations 2:15–16; 2 Samuel 12:14
- 25 Galatians 5:3–6; Jeremiah 4:4; Galatians 6:15; Acts 7:51; Deuteronomy 30:6
- 26 Colossians 2:11; 1 Corinthians 7:18–19; Romans 8:4; Ephesians 2:11; Acts 11:3–18
- 27 Matthew 12:41–42; Romans 7:6–8; Romans 8:4; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 2:29
- 28 Galatians 6:15; Matthew 3:9; Revelation 2:9; Romans 9:6–8; Romans 4:10–12
- 29 Deuteronomy 30:6; Philippians 3:3; Deuteronomy 10:16; Colossians 2:11–12; Jeremiah 4:4
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
After saying that the Gentile wanteth nothing appertaining to salvation if he be a doer of the Law, and after making that wonderful comparison, he goes on to set down the glories of the Jews, owing to which they thought scorn of the Gentiles: and first the very name itself, which was of great majesty, as the name Christian is …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
Those, on the other hand, who depart from Him, and despise His precepts, and by their deeds bring dishonour on Him who made them, and by their opinions blaspheme Him who nourishes them, heap up against themselves most righteous judgment. He therefore (i.e., the spiritual man) sifts and tries them all, but he himself is tried by no man: he …
And who is this but Thee, our God, the sweetness and well-spring of righteousness, who renderest "to every man according to his deeds," and despisest not "a broken and a contrite heart!"
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
For as teaching without doing condemns the teacher (for "thou which teachest another," it is said, "teachest thou not thyself"?) so doing but not guiding others, lessens our reward.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
For Jesus the King when about to become our Physician, girded Himself with the linen of humanity, and healed that which was sick. The perfect Teacher of babes became a babe among babes, that He might give wisdom to the foolish.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)