God's Righteous Judgment

(Genesis 4:1-7; Jude 1:3-16)

1You are therefore without excuse, O man, whoever you are who sit in judgement upon others. For when you pass judgement on your fellow man, you condemn yourself; for you who sit in judgement upon others are guilty of the same misdeeds; 2and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth. 3And you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such things although your own conduct is the same as theirs—do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished when God judges? 4Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God is gently drawing you to repentance? 5The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of Anger—the day when the righteousness of God's judgements will stand revealed. 6To each man He will make an award corresponding to his actions; 7to those on the one hand who, by lives of persistent right-doing, are striving for glory, honour and immortality, the Life of the Ages; 8while on the other hand upon the self-willed who disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness will fall anger and fury, affliction and awful distress, 9coming upon the soul of every man and woman who deliberately does wrong—upon the Jew first, and then upon the Gentile; 10whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one who does what is good and right—to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. 11For God pays no attention to this world's distinctions.

12For all who have sinned apart from the Law will also perish apart from the Law, and all who have sinned whilst living under the Law, will be judged by the Law. 13It is not those that merely hear the Law read who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those that obey the Law who will be pronounced righteous. 14For when Gentiles who have no Law obey by natural instinct the commands of the Law, they, without having a Law, are a Law to themselves; 15since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct which the Law requires is engraven on their hearts, while their consciences also bear witness to the Law, and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them or perhaps maintain their innocence— 16on the day when God will judge the secrets of men's lives by Jesus Christ, as declared in the Good News as I have taught it.

The Jews and the Law

17And since you claim the name of Jew, and find rest and satisfaction in the Law, and make your boast in God, 18and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ—being a man who receives instruction from the Law— 19and have persuaded yourself that, as for you, you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20a schoolmaster for the dull and ignorant, a teacher of the young, because in the Law you possess an outline of real knowledge and an outline of the truth: 21you then who teach your fellow man, do you refuse to teach yourself? You who cry out against stealing, are you yourself a thief? 22You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who loathe idols, do you plunder their temples? 23You who make your boast in the Law, do you offend against its commands and so dishonour God? 24For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentile nations because of you, as Holy Writ declares.

25Circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the Law; but if you are a Law-breaker, the fact that you have been circumcised counts for nothing. 26In the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just requirements of the Law, shall not his lack of circumcision be overlooked, and, 27although he is a Gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the Law, shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do, a written Law and circumcision, are yet a Law-breaker? 28For the true Jew is not the man who is simply a Jew outwardly, and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily. 29But the true Jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision is heart-circumcision—not literal, but spiritual; and such people receive praise not from men, but from God.