The Jews are censured, who make their boast of the law and keep it not. He declares who are the true Jews.

¹ For this reason, O man, each one of you who judges is inexcusable. For by that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you do the same things that you judge.

² For we know that the judgment of God is in accord with truth against those who do such things.

³ But, O man, when you judge those who do such things as you yourself also do, do you think that you will escape the judgment of God?

⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and patience and forbearance? Do you not know that the kindness of God is calling you to repentance?

⁵ But in accord with your hard and impenitent heart, you store up wrath for yourself, unto the day of wrath and of revelation by the just judgment of God.

⁶ For he will render to each one according to his works:

⁷ To those who, in accord with patient good works, seek glory and honor and incorruption, certainly, he will render eternal life.

⁸ But to those who are contentious and who do not acquiesce to the truth, but instead trust in iniquity, he will render wrath and indignation.

⁹ Tribulation and anguish are upon every soul of man that works evil: the Jew first, and also the Greek.

¹⁰ But glory and honor and peace are for all who do what is good: the Jew first, and also the Greek.

¹¹ For there is no favoritism with God.

¹² For whoever had sinned without the law, will perish without the law. And whoever had sinned in the law, will be judged by the law.

¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but rather it is the doers of the law who shall be justified.

¹⁴ For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature those things which are of the law, such persons, not having the law, are a law unto themselves.¹

1. 2:14This verse and passage is the basis for Church teaching on natural law.(Conte)

¹⁵ For they reveal the work of the law written in their hearts, while their conscience renders testimony about them, and their thoughts within themselves also accuse or even defend them,

¹⁶ unto the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men, through Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel.

¹⁷ But if you are called by name a Jew, and you rest upon the law, and you find glory in God,

¹⁸ and you have known his will, and you demonstrate the more useful things, having been instructed by the law:

¹⁹ you become confident within yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

²⁰ an instructor to the foolish, a teacher to children, because you have a type of knowledge and truth in the law.

²¹ As a result, you teach others, but you do not teach yourself. You preach that men should not steal, but you yourself steal.

²² You speak against adultery, but you commit adultery. You abominate idols, but you commit sacrilege.

²³ You would glory in the law, but through a betrayal of the law you dishonor God.

²⁴ (For because of you the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles, just as it was written.)

²⁵ Certainly, circumcision is beneficial, if you observe the law. But if you are a betrayer of the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

²⁶ And so, if the uncircumcised keep the justices of the law, shall not this lack of circumcision be counted as circumcision?

²⁷ And that which is by nature uncircumcised, if it fulfills the law, should it not judge you, who by the letter and by circumcision are a betrayer of the law?¹

1. 2:27In the Latin this verse and the previous verse are one sentence, or at least one continuous thought, so that the word nonne of verse 26 applies also to this verse.(Conte)

²⁸ For a Jew is not he who seems so outwardly. Neither is circumcision that which seems so outwardly, in the flesh.

²⁹ But a Jew is he who is so inwardly. And circumcision of the heart is in the spirit, not in the letter. For its praise is not of men, but of God.