Last night at my small group, we were talking of how God has forgiven us of all of our offenses. My cousin who is a new believer, commented that she had a hard time believing that I committed the same sins as everyone else because I was a mature Christian. I brought her to the passage of scripture that I have been blogging about in Romans to explain that we all struggle with the carnal earthly things. It is always a matter of the heart and one cannot judge based on what they alone see.
From a human perspective, it is easy to compare ourselves with one another. It is also easy to assume that the further we grow with Christ the more right that gives us to judge one another. But it simply isn't so. Even if we are not caught up in the same offenses as those we judge, James tells us that "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" ( James 2:10 ). It is best to keep judgment to God, who is not corrupted by sin or the flesh.
In Romans 1, we see that Paul has built his case to prove that the Gentiles were guilty before God. From our passage today in Romans chapter 2, he begins to turn the tables on the Jews. He is going to show them that they are just as guilty, if not more, than the Gentiles. So by default they have no right to pass judgment on the Gentiles because they are guilty of the very same things they judge.
When we judge, we prove that we have awareness of right from wrong and that knowledge makes us liable before God. Fortunately for us, God is in the business of saving and not condemning. The book of John says in John 3:17, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" If we recognize that and submit to the fact we need Jesus as our Savior then we escape judgment and find rest for our souls. Today, it is my prayer that you find this rest.
