The Jews and Thier Hypocrisy - Romans 2:17-29
Scripture Reading:
The Jew and Their Hypocrisy | Romans 2:17-29
TEXT
17 You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him.18 You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. 19 You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness.20 You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth.
21 Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? 22 You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? 23 You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. 24 No wonder the Scriptures say, “The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.”
25 The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. 26 And if the Gentiles obey God’s law, won’t God declare them to be his own people? 27 In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God’s law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God’s law but don’t obey it.
28 For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision.29 No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
1. What does Paul say about the Jews and their hypocrisy?
2. How has hypocrisy affected you—whether you’ve been one or have experienced one?
3. What can we do to keep ourselves clear from hypocrisy?
Topical Study: Hypocrisy
Most of us have seen one. Most of us have been one. Most of us find offensive to be called one We can point one out but reject the notion that we are or have been or can be one. What is that? A hypocrite.
Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the failure to follow one's own expressed moral rules and principles. (Wikipedia)
Jesus: One who sees a speck in a brother’s eye and don’t want to take out or do not recognize the plank in their own eyes.
Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
It’s the pot calling the kettle black.
The Jew and the Law | Hypocrisy Unveiled
The Jew thinks that through his relationship to the Law he has the essential features of knowledge and truth and can guide and teach the Gentile (2:17-20).
A. Many Jews rely on the Law and boast in their relationship to YHWH and claim to know his will since they are instructed out of the Law (2:17-18).
1. Many Jews proudly call themselves Jews, rely on the Law, and boast in their relationship with God (2:17).
2. Many Jews know God’s will and approve of morally and spiritually superior things because they claim to have been instructed out of the Law (2:18).
The Jews and the Law And Their Thoughts of Superiority.
B. Many Jews are convinced that since they have the essential features of knowledge and truth in the Law they are de facto able to carry on a mediatorial and pedagogical role in the world (2:19-20).
1. Many Jews are convinced that they are a guide to the blind (2:19).
2. Many Jews are convinced that they are a light to those in darkness (2:19).
3. Many Jews are convinced that they are an educator of the senseless (2:20).
4. Many Jews are convinced that they are a teacher of little children (2:20).
5. The Jews have in the Law the essential features of knowledge and truth (2:20).
The Fault of Not Recognizing Hypocrisy
II. But the Jew does not obey the teachings of the Law and as a result the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles (2:21-24).
A. The Jew who teaches, preaches, and tells others not to steal, commit adultery, and rob temples is himself guilty of the same sins (2:21-23).
1. Many Jews preach against stealing, yet they steal (2:21).
2. Many Jews tell others not to commit adultery, yet they commit adultery (2:22).
3. Many Jews abhor idols, yet they rob temples (2:22).
4. Many Jews boast in the Law, but they dishonor God by transgressing the Law (2:23).
B. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the Jews’ disobedience (2:24).
The Jews Who Know and The Gentiles Who See
III. The Jew cannot arrogantly appeal to the outward rite of circumcision since (1) the uncircumcised man who obeys the Law will be regarded as circumcised and he in turn will judge the disobedience of the circumcised Jew as uncircumcision, and (2) the true Jew who gets praise from God, not people, is the one who is circumcised by the Spirit inwardly, in the heart, and not by the letter (2:25-29).
A. Circumcision is as uncircumcision when a man continually breaks the Law (2:25).
B. The uncircumcised man who keeps the Law will be regarded as circumcised and he will judge the disobedience of the circumcised man as uncircumcision (2:26-27).
1. The uncircumcised man who keeps the Law will be regarded as circumcised (2:26)
2. The uncircumcised man will judge the disobedience of the circumcised man as uncircumcision (2:27).
The True Jew | Doing Is Better Than The Knowing
C. The true Jew who gets praise from God, not people, is one who is not simply circumcised outwardly in the flesh, but one who has been circumcised inwardly, by the Spirit, and not the letter (2:28-29).
1. A true Jew is not one outwardly and circumcision is not something purely outward in the body (2:28).
2. A true Jew is one inwardly where the circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter (2:29).
3. A true Jew is one whose praise is not from people, but from God (2:29).
Apply
□ What are some pitfalls of living life hypocritically?
□ In what ways do you think we can adversely affect people who expect us to live one way while we act another?
□ What can we do to better be a testimony to others?
Commentary
(17-20) The boast of the Jewish man.
Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.
a. Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law: Every “boast” of the Jewish man in this passage concerns the possession of law. The Jewish people of Paul’s day were extremely proud and confident in the fact that God gave His holy law to them as a nation. They believed this confirmed their status as a specially chosen people, and thus insured their salvation.
b. Having the form of knowledge: Although the Jew should gratefully receive the law as a gift from God, Paul will show how mere possession of the law justifies no one.
4. (21-24) The indictment against the Jewish man.
You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
a. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? It comes down to this principle: “You have the law, do you keep it? You can see how others break the law, do you see how you break it also?”
i. Much of the rabbinic Judaism of Paul’s day interpreted the law so that they thought they were completely justified by the law. Jesus exposed the error of such interpretations (Matthew 5:19-48).
ii. God applies His law to both our actionsand our attitudes. Sometimes we only want our attitudes evaluated, and sometimes only our actions. God will hold us accountable for both motives and actions.
iii. “Hypocrites can talk of religion, as if their tongues did run upon patterns, they are fair professors, but foul sinners; as was that carnal cardinal Cremensis, the pope’s legate, sent hither, A.D. 1114, to interdict priests’ marriages, and being taken in the act with a common strumpet, he excused it by saying he was no priest himself, but a corrector of them.” (Trapp)
b. You who abhor idols, do you rob temples: Morris speaks to the idea of robbing temples. “Clearly some people held that a Jew might well make profits from dishonest practices connected with idolatry, and Paul may well have had this in mind.”
c. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you: Paul reminds the Jew that God said in the Old Testament that the failure of the Jew to obey the law causes Gentiles to blaspheme God.
5. (25-29) The irrelevance of circumcision.
For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
a. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law: Paul recognizes that a Jew may protest and say that his salvation is based on the fact that he is a descendant of Abraham, proven by circumcision. Paul rightly answers that this is irrelevant in regard to justification.
i. The Jew believed that his circumcisionguaranteed his salvation. He might be punished in the world to come, but could never be lost.
ii. In Paul’s day, some Rabbis taught that Abraham sat at the entrance of hell and made certain that none of his circumcised descendants went there. Some Rabbis also taught “God will judge the Gentiles with one measure and the Jews with another” and “All Israelites will have part in the world to come.” (Barclay)
iii. Circumcision (or baptism – or any ritual in itself) doesn’t save anyone. In the ancient world the Egyptians also circumcised their boys but it did not make them followers of the true God. Even in Abraham’s day Ishmael (the son of the flesh) was circumcised, but it did not make him a son of the covenant.
iv. Circumcision and baptism do about the same thing that a label on a can does. If the outer label doesn’t match with what is on the inside, something is wrong! If there are carrots inside the can, you can put a label that says “Peas” but it doesn’t change what is inside the can. Being born again changes what is inside the can, and then you can put the appropriate label on the outside.
v. Of course, this is not a new thought. The Law of Moses itself teaches this principle: Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer(Deuteronomy 10:16).
b. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law: If a Gentile were to keep the righteous requirement of the law through his conscience (as Romans 2:15 shows), would he not be justified, instead of the circumcised Jewish man who did not keep the law? The point is emphasized: having the law or havinga ceremony isn’t enough. God requires righteousness.
i. Morris quoting Manson: “If they are loyal to the good they know, they will be acceptable to God; but it is a very big ‘if’.”
c. And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? This is God’s answer to the one who says, “What about the Pygmy in Africa who has never heard the gospel?” God will judge that Pygmy by what he has heard, and how he has lived by it. Of course, this means that the Pygmy will be guilty before God, because no one has perfectly lived by their conscience, or perfectly responded to what we can know of God through creation.
i. The problem of the “innocent native” is that we can’t find an innocent native anywhere.
ii. “What about the Pygmy in Africa who hasn’t heard the gospel?” is a good question, but there are two far more important questions:
· What about you who hear the gospel, but reject it? What excuse is there for you?
· What about you, who are commanded to take the gospel to that Pygmy in Africa (Matthew 28:19), but refuse to do it?
d. Whose praise is not from men but from God: All the outward signs of religion may earn us praise from men, but they will not earn us praise from God. The evidence of our rightness with God is not contained in outward signs or works, and it is not assured because of our parentage. The evidence is found in the work of God in our heart which shows itself in fruit.
e. William Newell summarizes Romans 2 with “Seven Great Principles of God’s Judgment” that are worth noting:
· God’s judgment is according to truth(Romans 2:2).
· God’s judgment is according to accumulated guilt (Romans 2:5).
· God’s judgment is according to works (Romans 2:6).
· God’s judgment is without partiality (Romans 2:11).
· God’s judgment is according to performance, not knowledge (Romans 2:13).
· God’s judgment reaches the secrets of the heart (Romans 2:16).
· God’s judgment is according to reality, not religious profession (Romans 2:17-29).
