Therefore
What is therefore there for? It's to look back at what was just said. Paul was just talking about the ungodly lifestyles of the general Roman society. Now he's talking to people who came out of that society who are in the church in Rome.
you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
Human nature is quick to see it's own weaknesses in others, so we tend to notice our own faults when other people display them. We are more sensitive to what we're personally intimate with.
Those in the church are not to condemn others who are still practicing this lifestyle, and they may even still be living this way secretly, even if just in their thinking.
And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
God is the One who will judge, it's not for us to usurp His place to judge.
But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
When we see in someone else that attitude that we are ashamed of having ourselves, and point it out in them to accuse them or criticize them in judgment, do you think that God won't call you to account for it also, as well as the uncharitable attitude toward the other person?
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
Do you remember how God called you into faith? Did He browbeat you into submission, or come down hard on you for your wrongs?
No, He was kind and gentle, wooing you to Himself, breaking your heart for Loving you in spite of all your rebellion and efforts to push Him away.
His pull, His arms, are stronger than every evil addiction or habit or attitude. And His kindness leads us to let our hearts break and break away those stony parts, realizing His compassion and pity upon us, as victims of our own choices.
We also, when we live in the World with these unrighteous people, we need to be like our Father and our Lord Jesus, and love them into the Kingdom.
But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who
will render to each person according to his deeds (Matthew 16: 27, Jesus' words):Those who stubbornly refuse to seek Him with all their hearts, and hold out from God Loving them, instead following their own ideas and desires, as though they are their own gods; will in that Day be forced to bow before Him, giving account to Him, facing His judgment.
to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
Those who have submitted to God's authority over them to call them into His righteous family, doing good things in obedience to His ways, will receive their Resurrection bodies, and live forever with God.
but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the Truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
But those who just give lip service to the Lord, and harbor desires for self-promotion, only wanting "fire insurance" will be facing righteous anger and the wrath of God on that Day of judgment.
Paul is talking to those who consider themselves Christians, who are in the church in Rome. We also need to take this to heart, if we consider ourselves to be Christians, but still harbor these evil and twisted attitudes of heart.
There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,
Every person who will not turn to the Lord, will face what we all deserve; God always dealt with the Jews first, then the rest of us. Even as we live now, the consequences of our attitudes and actions will follow us.
but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
But all the rewards He wants to give will go to His own children, to those who have followed Him in letting His Son wash them in His Blood, who have become co-heirs with Him of all the riches and glory and peace of His Kingdom.
God chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bless the Nation Israel with His Law, so they had every advantage over all the rest of the nations. But all the people of the other Nations could also come to Israel to enjoy all the benefits of citizenship, even as it remains today in Modern Israel.
See Exodus 12: 48-49, where those "strangers" who worshiped the Lord, obeying His Law, even being circumcised, were proselytes, considered as citizens with full rights and responsibilities of citizenship with the Israelites.
See also other verses, like Joshua 8: 30-35 where Joshua read the Law to all the congregation of Israel which included the women and the little ones and the strangers that walked among them, who became "naturalized citizens" of Israel. And Joshua 20:9 that declares that the Cities of Refuge were as available to the Strangers who lived among them as they were for the Israelites, who had inadvertently killed someone without premeditation. And other verses like these.
So even in the Old Testament times, God did not prevent anyone from any Nation who wanted to worship Him, from being a follower, and having the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in His Kingdom.
For there is no partiality with God.
God chose to deal with the Jews first, but no person, even a Jew, is worth more to God than any other person. We are all of one Race of Mankind, who God created to be His children. All those who seek Him with all their hearts, will find Him (Jeremiah 29: 13).
And all who refuse to acknowledge Him are choosing to be deceived, and will end up facing the judgment we all deserve, by their own choice.
O my Father, You are so gracious, to have made us for such a high purpose! To be Your own children!
Father, help us to grow in our knowledge of who You are, and how You want us to be, respecting Your authority to judge, and seeing others through Your eyes of compassion for the suffering and misery people suffer as the consequences of their own choices. Teach us how to love them into Your Kingdom, as You Loved us into Your Kingdom.
O Father God, show Yourself to all those who want to come to You, who think that they are Christians when they only have a religion, instead of that relationship with You that You want with them. Father, call each one into Your gentle arms, embracing them with Your compassion and strength to hold them against their squirming, as I held my toddlers in their temper tantrums.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim that Christ Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
