Romans 2:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He said this while addressing rulers, since that city, Rome, then held authority over the whole world. Therefore the Apostle first says: Whoever you are, you deprive yourself of justification. When you condemn the adulterer while you yourself commit adultery, then even if no man condemns you, in your sentence upon the guilty one you also pronounce sentence upon yourself.

The first law, when it condemned someone who sinned against his neighbor for some just cause, also condemned the one who was wronged. For in whatever a man judges another, he condemns himself, and in whatever he forgives, he will be forgiven (Rom 2:1; Sir 28:2). For the law says thus: for condemnation, condemnation; for forgiveness, forgiveness.

Therefore the fulfillment of the law is forgiveness. We have said "the first law," not because God gave men two laws, but one law, spiritual by nature. With respect to recompense, it pronounces a righteous sentence: forgiveness to him who forgives, and exaction from him who exacts. For it is said: "With the chosen You will be chosen, and with the crooked You will show Yourself contrary" (Ps 17:27).

Therefore those who fulfill it spiritually, and according to the measure of their fulfillment become partakers of grace, love not only those who have benefited them, but also those who have reproached and persecuted them. They expect to acquire spiritual love as the recompense of good things.

I call these things good not only because they forgive offenses, but also because they benefit the souls of those who offended them. They pray to God for them, as though through them they receive blessedness. And Scripture says: "Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you," and so forth (Mt 5:11).

True, the Jews could say that they did not commit the same crimes attributed to the Gentiles. But they could not boast that they did not transgress the Law at all. The Apostle concludes his address to the Jew with a question: while you yourself do the same things as the Gentiles whom you condemn, will you escape the judgment of God? (verse 3).

It is known that when we condemn others and commit the same sins, we thereby condemn ourselves. But Chrysostom says: "If you have not escaped your own judgment, will you escape God's judgment? If the severity even of this tribunal, your conscience, is so great that you could not spare yourself, how will God not do this, who is sinless and boundlessly righteous? Or have you condemned yourself, while God will approve and praise you? What sense could that have? Certainly you yourself deserve greater punishment than the one whom you condemned" (Homily on Romans 5:2).

The teaching that each will be recompensed according to his deeds was not unknown even to the Gentiles. But it was fully revealed to the Hebrews, and still more clearly to Christians. Therefore the apostolic rebukes, though they mainly concerned the Roman rulers and the Jews, also apply to Christians. Like them, Christians seek various excuses to justify their negligence concerning salvation.

The Gentiles reached such audacity that they not only fearlessly did shameful deeds themselves, but also praised others for them. For example, writers praised the impious Roman emperors. But the Jews and some Christians fell into another delusion. They condemned others for evil deeds but did not try to avoid them themselves. They seemed to forget that they would equally fall under condemnation.

Perhaps they thought that God would deal more leniently with them, as persons closer to Him. They did not know that God endures His chosen ones only in order to give them the opportunity to repent. "God shows His mercy so that you may be freed from sins, not so that you may add new ones. If you do not do this, the punishment will be more dreadful," says Chrysostom.

Therefore, when you condemn the adulterer, he says, while you yourself commit adultery, you condemn yourself." From the fact that they themselves did evil and encouraged others to it, it does not follow that in their conscience, in the judgment about deeds which they conduct within themselves, they justified evil. No, they understood God's righteousness, that evil is evil and worthy of punishment. Yet, unable to master themselves, they both sinned and led others to the same. The Apostle now sets this opposition of deeds and life before this inner judge. He does so in order to bring them to consciousness of their wrong and to awaken the feeling of danger, lest they someday be condemned before the face of God's righteousness. As an example of the condemnation of sin despite one's own sins, perhaps the Apostle in fact had in mind the judgment of judges. The law condemned and punished murder, theft, adultery, violation of another's rights, insults, and the like. The judge could not justify all this. He had to condemn it and assign punishment to the guilty, despite the fact that he himself was no less guilty in the same or other respects than the one condemned. The people who watched the legal proceedings also agreed with the judge's sentence and found it right. Thus one cannot suppose that we lack judgment about the rightness and wrongness of deeds. What, then, is wrong? The wrong lies in the direction of our judgment. We transfer strict condemnation to others, passing ourselves by or distancing it from ourselves. It has been observed that the more guilty a man is of something himself, the more strictly he judges another for that very thing. It seems that the Apostle chiefly intends here to dispose us to transfer this justice, common to all, from others to ourselves. We must apply to ourselves the consequences of condemnation, that is, lack of excuse and punishment. For this reason. For what reason? Because they know God's righteousness and, as a consequence, judge those who sin and condemn them rightly. You are without excuse. You can say nothing in your own justification. Everyone who judges. "The Apostle speaks decisively: everyone, whoever you are, you deprive yourself of excuse" (Saint Chrysostom). For by the judgment by which you judge another, ἐν ᾧ γὰρ κρίνεις, that is, while you judge, by that very act of judgment with which you judge another, you condemn yourself. Judgment is the application of a general principle to a particular case. When you condemn someone for some deed, you acknowledge the wrongness of that kind of deed in general. This awareness is the motive force of judgment and condemnation. You condemn a fornicator. Why? Because you know that fornication is a sinful deed. But if you yourself fornicate, is your fornication not just as sinful? Yes. Then acknowledge this also. Saint Chrysostom says: "Every man, both in conversation and common speech, and before his own conscience, judges those who have transgressed. No one will dare say that an adulterer does not deserve punishment. But all, says the Apostle, judge others, and not themselves." The lack of such self-condemnation is a common defect. We direct judgment away from ourselves toward others, without taking ourselves in. The Apostle wishes to return it to ourselves. For this he takes the right condemnation of others and says: you judge others rightly. Yet this right judgment about others is no less right in relation to you. All sin. The common mutual judgment of all should bring all to the awareness that all are without excuse.