Romans 2:13-14

2:13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous. ¹  2:14 For whenever the Gentiles, ²  who do not have the law, do by nature ³  the things required by the law, ⁴  these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

¹ tn The Greek sentence expresses this contrast more succinctly than is possible in English. Grk “For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous.”

² sn Gentile is a NT term for a non-Jew.

³ tn Some (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:135-37) take the phrase φύσει (fusei, “by nature”) to go with the preceding “do not have the law,” thus: “the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature,” that is, by virtue of not being born Jewish.

⁴ tn Grk “do by nature the things of the law.”