Romans 2:1-4

sooo...we continue the march through romans and we are entering chapter two. Just to give a short rewind........> in chapter one it talked about how God turned the people over to their sin because they would not accept Gods truth and so their sin became their punishment. Then we listed all the sins that were listed in chapter two and defined them and I personally found that i was guilty of many of those sins myself...OFTEN. Ex: arrogance, insolence. Interestingly enough the next chapter begins talking about...you guessed it....judging other people for the same sins you commit. *Sigh.... at this point we are only in chapter two and my toes are about to be stepped on. Here we go....

¹ You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Notice that verse one DOES NOT say that we are never to judge anyone (we may talk about this in a later chapter)...it just says that to what ever measure we judge we will also be judged. In fact it is even implying that if you judge some one for a sin that you are committing yourself, not only will they judge you for that same sin at the same measure but you are literally condemning yourself by judging them before you have yourself right!! At first this seems scary, but I would say this could be a good thing. If people know you are going to judge them (a better word to me here is "hold them accountable") then they in turn will also hold you accountable to the same measure. By holding someone else accountable you are setting the standard high for yourself. This is not necessarily a bad thing! 

Verse 2 goes on to say that Gods judgment is based on truth. At first this confused me because i was like well...if you are holding some one accountable with God's word then your judgment is based on truth too...huh??? see my confusion. BUT if you are judging someone but yet living in the same sin, then you are living a lie by holding them to a standard that you may try to MAKE it look like you are following...but you really aren't. So your judgement is ultimately based on a lie and I believe this is what God is saying. His judgment is ALWAYS based on truth and like verse 3 says...we would be foolish to think that we (the liars) will escape Gods judgment (based on truth). These last two questions in verse 3 and 4 are very simple so I wont go on... you can re read them if you need to. Rest of the chapter comes later..