Romans 2:4

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know ¹  that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ² Therefore ³  you are without excuse, ⁴  whoever you are, ⁵  when you judge someone else. ⁶  For on whatever grounds ⁷  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Romans 2:4

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know ⁸  that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

Revelation 2:21

2:21 I ⁹  have given her time to repent, but ¹⁰  she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.

¹ tn Grk “being unaware.”

² sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

³ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

⁴ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

⁵ tn Grk “O man.”

⁶ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

⁷ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

⁸ tn Grk “being unaware.”

⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and contemporary English style.

¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to bring out the contrast present in this woman’s obstinate refusal to repent.