Study Desk

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, passing judgment; for when you judge someone else, you are passing judgment against yourself; since you who are judging do the same things he does.

We know that God's judgment lands impartially on those who do such things;

do you think that you, a mere man passing judgment on others who do such things, yet doing them yourself, will escape the judgment of God?

Or perhaps you despise the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience; because you don't realize that God's kindness is intended to lead you to turn from your sins.

But by your stubbornness, by your unrepentant heart, you are storing up anger for yourself on the Day of Anger, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed;

for he will pay back each one according to his deeds .^[a]

To those who seek glory, honor and immortality by perseverance in doing good, he will pay back eternal life.

But to those who are self-seeking, who disobey the truth and obey evil, he will pay back wrath and anger.

Yes, he will pay back misery and anguish to every human being who does evil, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile;

but glory and honor and shalom to everyone who keeps doing what is good, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.

For God does not show favoritism.

All who have sinned outside the framework of Torah will die outside the framework of Torah; and all who have sinned within the framework of Torah will be judged by Torah.

For it is not merely the hearers of Torah whom God considers righteous; rather, it is the doers of what Torah says who will be made righteous in God's sight.

For whenever Gentiles, who have no Torah, do naturally what the Torah requires, then these, even though they don't have Torah, for themselves are Torah!

For their lives show that the conduct the Torah dictates is written in their hearts .^[b] Their consciences also bear witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them

on a day when God passes judgment on people's inmost secrets. (According to the Good News as I proclaim it, he does this through the Messiah Yeshua.)

But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God

and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah;

and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness,

an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth;

then, you who teach others, don't you teach yourself? Preaching, "Thou shalt not steal," ^[c] do you steal?

Saying, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," ^[d] do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts?

You who take such pride in Torah, do you, by disobeying the Torah, dishonor God? —

as it says in the Tanakh, "For it is because of you that God's name is blasphemed by the Goyim." ^[e]

For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!

Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, won't his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?

Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who have had a b'rit-milah and have Torah written out but violate it!

For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical.

On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.