Ephesians 4:17-19

Live in Holiness

4:17 So I say this, and insist ¹  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ²  of their thinking. ³  4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, ⁴  being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 4:19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. ⁵ 

Acts 14:16

14:16 In ⁶  past ⁷  generations he allowed all the nations ⁸  to go their own ways,

Acts 17:30-31

17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked ⁹  such times of ignorance, ¹⁰  he now commands all people ¹¹  everywhere to repent, ¹²  17:31 because he has set ¹³  a day on which he is going to judge the world ¹⁴  in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, ¹⁵  having provided proof to everyone by raising ¹⁶  him from the dead.”

Romans 11:30

11:30 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience,

Romans 11:1

Israel’s Rejection not Complete nor Final

11:1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

Romans 2:10

2:10 but ¹⁷  glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek.

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ¹⁸ Therefore ¹⁹  you are without excuse, ²⁰  whoever you are, ²¹  when you judge someone else. ²²  For on whatever grounds ²³  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Romans 2:8

2:8 but ²⁴  wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition ²⁵  and do not obey the truth but follow ²⁶  unrighteousness.

[4:17]  ¹ tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.

[4:17]  ² tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.

[4:17]  ³ tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”

[4:18]  ⁴ tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.

[4:19]  ⁵ sn Greediness refers to an increasing desire for more and more. The point is that sinful passions and desires are never satisfied.

[14:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “them, who in.” The relative pronoun (“who”) was replaced by the pronoun “he” (“In past generations he”) and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek and the awkwardness of two relative clauses (“who made the heaven” and “who in past generations”) following one another.

[14:16]  ⁷ tn On this term see BDAG 780 s.v. παροίχομαι. The word is a NT hapax legomenon.

[14:16]  ⁸ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (in Greek the word for “nation” and “Gentile” is the same). The plural here alludes to the variety of false religions in the pagan world.

[17:30]  ⁹ tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.”

[17:30]  ¹⁰ tn Or “times when people did not know.”

[17:30]  ¹¹ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[17:30]  ¹² sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.

[17:31]  ¹³ tn Or “fixed.”

[17:31]  ¹⁴ sn The world refers to the whole inhabited earth.

[17:31]  ¹⁵ tn Or “appointed.” BDAG 723 s.v. ὁρίζω 2.b has “of persons appoint, designate, declare: God judges the world ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν through a man whom he has appointed Ac 17:31.”

[17:31]  ¹⁶ tn The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") indicates means here.

[2:10]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “but even,” to emphasize the contrast. The second word has been omitted since it is somewhat redundant in English idiom.

[2:1]  ¹⁸ 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).

[2:1]  ¹⁹ 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.

[2:1]  ²⁰ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ²² tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[2:8]  ²⁴ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:8]  ²⁵ tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”

[2:8]  ²⁶ tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”