Romans 2

The Law Written on the Heart of Those Without It

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The Judgment of God Is Impartial

2:1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who judges; for in what you judge the other, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

2:2And we know that God’s judgment against those who practice such things is according to truth.

2:3But do you reckon this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment?

2:4Or do you despise the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart, you store up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of God’s righteous judgment,

2:6who will repay each according to his works:

2:7to those who, through perseverance in good work, seek glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life;

2:8but to those acting from selfish ambition, who disobey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath and fury,

2:9affliction and distress upon every soul of a person who works evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;

2:10but glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

2:11For there is no partiality with God.

The Law Written on Hearts

2:12For all who sinned without law will also perish without law; and all who sinned under law will be judged through law.

2:13For it is not the hearers of law who are righteous before God, but the doers of law will be justified.

2:14For whenever Gentiles who do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these, though not having law, are a law to themselves,

2:15who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness with it, and their reasonings among themselves accusing or even defending,

2:16on the day when God judges people’s hidden things according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

The Jew and the Law

2:17But if you bear the name Jew, and rest upon law and boast in God,

2:18and know His will and approve the things that matter, being instructed from the law,

2:19and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those in darkness,

2:20an instructor of the senseless, a teacher of infants, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

2:21you then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who proclaim that one must not steal, do you steal?

2:22You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

2:23You who boast in law, do you dishonor God through transgression of the law?

2:24For “the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you,” just as it is written.

Circumcision of the Heart

2:25For circumcision benefits you if you practice law; but if you are a transgressor of law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

2:26So if the uncircumcised person keeps the law’s righteous requirements, will not his uncircumcision be reckoned as circumcision?

2:27And the one uncircumcised by nature who fulfills the law will judge you who, with the written letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of law.

2:28For the Jew is not the one outwardly so, nor is circumcision what is outward in flesh;

2:29but the Jew is the one inwardly so, and circumcision is of the heart, in Spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not from people but from God.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.