No Excuse

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” (Romans 2:1-9) 

          To some people, the point of this passage is “Thou Shalt Not Judge,” and they are quick to scream out condemnation to anyone they notice is judging – apparently without realizing that screaming out that condemnation means they are judging and stand condemned. The point of this passage is not that we should not judge. The point is that we are all guilty. 

          The solution to this passage is not to throw out the rules so that the only ones who are guilty are the ones who say the rules should be kept. This is the mistake I hear too often. If we aren’t perfect, the solution is to change the standard – to dumb it down so that we and (more importantly) those we’ve declared to be wrong – aren’t wrong any more. If the Church has made the mistake of accepting divorce (it has), the answer isn’t to accept homosexuality, too. The answer is to accept God’s judgment about divorce and homosexuality. 

          Instead, the error being addressed in this passage is the idea that anyone is righteous. We can readily agree that I am not righteous. There is nothing I can do that makes me righteous. The thing is, we must also agree that you are not righteous, and that there is nothing you can do to make yourself righteous. The next guy isn’t righteous either. It doesn’t really matter what religion or philosophy you want to discuss. One of the elements of every worldview is the fact that somehow, somewhere along the line, things stopped being the way they are supposed to be. It does no one any good to pretend otherwise.