You Are Without Excuse… Romans 2: 1

Paul pulls no punches toward the Romans, or us, in this salvo at the beginning of the second chapter of his Letter to the Romans. The message at the center of this passage is our all too often unjust tendency to judge the character, indeed, even the personhood of others without recognizing our faults. This capacity to judge others is directly connected to the sin of pride, and all other sins find their genesis in that pride. And there is not one of us that is free of this tendency toward judgmentalism. It exists in individuals, in groups, and yes, even in political parties and governments. Whether done intentionally through lies and deceit or unintentionally, it always causes harm and injury to the other. This is the definition of sin.

Scripture speaks very clearly on this in many places. To be clear here, it is not just the judgment of people’s words and deeds that is challenged here; it is something far more subtle, far more important. We are challenged to see that, all too often, our judgments of another are offenses against the truth. More often than not, our judgmental attitudes against others are rash misjudgments rooted in assumptions of the truth or are based on our emotional responses rather than supported by sufficient evidence. Such judgments, if we are honest with ourselves, lack respect for the person or their reputation and are generally harmful to the person. They are often attempts to destroy the character of a person. But we are here given the challenge to see that such judgmentalism is harmful even more to us, to our eternal souls. This is what Paul is addressing in this passage from his Letter to the Romans. He is implying correctly here that such judgments are all too often rooted in our own unseen, unrecognized, or denied weaknesses.

Another example of this can be found in John’s Gospel with the story of the woman caught in adultery (Jn. 8:1-11). In this story, there is only one person who is without sin, Jesus. The woman who is brought before him is certainly guilty of a serious sin, but that is not the central purpose of this story. It is as much about her accusers as it is about her. The Pharisees in this story have an even deeper sinful purpose, that is, to “test [Jesus], so that they could have some charge to bring against him” (v. 6). They even use the law of Moses to challenge Jesus on the matter of adultery. But Jesus understands what is going on and masterfully turns the tables on them. He bends down and writes in the dust and then looks at them and says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). And this is exactly what Jesus says to us. Look inside at your faults, failings, and weaknesses before you begin to judge others without knowing them. None of us is without sin. All of us are worthy of God’s righteous judgment.

But what is it that Jesus reveals about the nature of God and his judgment here? We see the answer to that question here when he addresses the woman after one by one, all of her accusers have gone away, having been forced so subtly to confront their guilt, their hypocrisy. “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?…Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (vs. 10-11). Yes, God judges. He is the only one who truly knows each of our sins, our failings. But his love for us is greater than our sins. Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, came to conquer sin and death by and through his infinite love for us. He suffered and died for us to heal us, to free us from the bondage of our sins. He challenges us to love one another with the same kind of love and forgiveness (Jn. 13:34-35).

We need look no further than the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray to see this challenge to look within first, to humbly recognize our faults and our own need to be forgiven before we proudly take it upon ourselves to judge another’s character and even their very personhood. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt, 6:12). In this prayer, we are challenged to face the fact that we will be forgiven to the same degree and depth that we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. On that idea alone, we could spend an entire lifetime of prayerful contemplation. This is what Paul understands when he admonishes the Romans (and us): “You are without excuse, everyone of you who pass judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things” (Rm. 2:1). Lord, give us the grace we need to be less judgmental of others. Amen.