Romans 2

1So you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you pass judgment on others. In judging someone else you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, do the very same things. 2We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things rests on the truth. 3When you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, do you really think you will escape God’s judgment? 4Or do you make light of how rich he is in kindness, tolerance and patience? Do you not see that God is kind to you in order to bring you to repentance? 5But your heart is hard and will not repent, and so you are piling up wrath for yourself against the day of wrath, when God will make his righteous judgment known. 6He will give each person what their deeds deserve. 7Those who persist in doing good, seeking glory, honor and immortality, he will reward with eternal life. 8But for those who are driven by selfish ambition, who reject the truth and follow wrongdoing instead, there will be wrath and fury. 9There will be trouble and anguish for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. 10But there will be glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11For God does not favor one person over another.

12Those who sin without having the law will be lost without the law, and those who sin while living under the law will be judged by the law. 13Hearing the law does not make anyone righteous before God; those who do what the law says are the ones God will declare righteous. 14Gentiles do not have the law. Yet when, by nature, they carry out what the law says, they become their own law, though the law was never given to them. 15Their conduct shows that the work of the law is written in their hearts. Their conscience bears witness too, and their thoughts argue with one another, now accusing them, now defending them, 16on the day when God, through Christ Jesus, judges the hidden things in people’s lives, as the gospel I preach says.

17Now you call yourself a Jew. You rely on the law and take pride in God. 18You know his will, and because the law has taught you, you can tell what matters most. 19You are sure that you can guide the blind and be a light to people in the dark, 20one who corrects the foolish and teaches the young, because in the law you have the very shape of knowledge and truth. 21So you teach others; will you not teach yourself? You preach that people should not steal; do you steal? 22You say that people should not commit adultery; do you commit adultery? You detest idols; do you rob temples? 23You take pride in the law; do you dishonor God by breaking it? 24As it is written, “Because of you the name of God is insulted among the Gentiles.”

25Circumcision is worth something if you keep the law. If you break the law, though, you are as good as uncircumcised. 26So if an uncircumcised man keeps what the law requires, will God not count him as circumcised? 27The man who is uncircumcised by birth but carries out the law will judge you, who have the law in writing and are circumcised, yet break the law. 28For a person is not a Jew because of what is outward, and circumcision is not something outward in the body. 29No, the one who is a Jew inwardly is the Jew, and the circumcision that counts is of the heart, by the Spirit and not by the letter. That person’s praise comes from God, not from people.