Inexcusable

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgement of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practising such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgement of God? – Romans 2.1-3

At this point a lot of ‘believers’ might be feeling pretty chuffed with themselves. You look at that horrible list of sins and think, ‘hey, that sure isn’t me. I am glad I am safe!’ Those are really wicked people. Surely they deserve God’s judgement.

But then comes the statement ‘you are inexcusable!’ The Jews who read this letter thought God was only going to bring down judgement on the Gentiles. ‘Yeah, God’s going to get those dirty Gentile dogs because they are really wicked sinners!’

God hates hypocritical judgement. Here He is, of course, condemning those Jews who were judging Gentiles for doing the same things. God is going to judge all sin, no matter who commits it!

But I think there is another principle applicable to anyone who claims to be God’s child. It is easy for the believer to sit back and condemn all those people who do the really bad sins. It is also easy to ignore the fact that there are things that God’s people are doing at the same time as they are condemning. We have no problem condemning ‘sexual immorality’ but what about ‘whispering and backbiting?’ It is easy to condemn ‘haters of God’ while we excuse ‘unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful.’

The verse above says that God judges all these things. Does the fact that Christ has faced the judgement for me lessen the wickedness of what I do? Is there any excuse?