Romans 2:21-29
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
Romans 2:21
You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You that
preach a man should not steal, do you steal?
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You who preach . . .
This is the first of a number of questions Paul asks of the religious Jews.
He will use this Socratic method of questioning through out this section.
More questions will follow in Romans 3:1-8.
The question of v 21 is introductory: You teach others, do you not also
teach yourself? Do you learn from what you are teaching to others?
Two words are used here:
1. Teach or Teaching: This is DIDASKW and it looks at that which is given
verbally. This type of teaching is in two parts. First, there is the preparation
of the teaching; and secondly, the teaching is intended to seek a result
or a change of mind on the part of the hearers.
The Jews who were teaching the Word were able to cause a change in the ones
hearing them, but they did not apply anything themselves. There was no change
effected in them.
Jesus spoke of this situation in Matthew 23:1-2, "Then Jesus spoke
to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees
have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell
you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say
things, and do not do them."
It is possible to communicate truth, have it become effective in others
lives, while not having it effect the life of the one communicating.
This certainly is not the ideal situation, but it can be the real situation.
God's word can even be effective to others when it is spoken by a jack-ass
as it was with Baalam.
2. The second word used with a specific question is the word PREACH.
This is KURUSSW and refers to public proclamation. It was used in classical
Greek for the work of the official whose job it was to announce government
policy and proclamations especially any proclamation of war.
Topic: PREACHING
In the New Testament KERUSSW is used almost exclusively for information
related to salvation or deliverance of the believer.
It is seen as being much more specific than TEACHING and here is used for
the communication of truth regarding stealing or thievery.
In both cases the issue is that the one who communicates must learn from
what he communicates. The communicator is also a student of the Word.
As a pastor whose duty it is to study and teach, I learn when I study; but
I also learn when I teach. I am under the same obligation as you to learn,
think, and apply the Word that is taught from this pulpit.
Paul asks another question:
"You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal?"
The potential hypocrisy of this situation was also stated by Jesus regarding
the religious leaders of his day:
Matthew 23:14, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you
devour widows' houses, even while for a pretense you make long prayers;
therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.
Notice that there is a problem of sin and a coverup in this passage.
They are devouring widow's homes. This was a gimmick they used. They would
say a recently deceased husband pledged his home and property to the synagogue
or temple prior to his death. And they would move the widow out, forcing
her to live with relatives.
Then they would cover this up with long prayers for the widow's well being.
This is PRETENSE ... and this is one of the four ways man covers up dysfunctional
behavior:
1. Self Protection: Prevents you from depending upon the Lord and the Holy
Spirit
2. Pretense: Consciously living a lie or unconsciously failing to recognize
what you really are.
3. Denial: Not facing sin, weakness, error
4. Demanding: Thinking that others owe you something, having unrealistic
expectations of others and then demanding that they meet those expectations.
When they do not, fall into self pity.
The hypocritical situation mentioned by both Jesus and Paul is dysfunctional.
All hypocrisy is dysfunctional. This was being covered up by the religious
Jews through pretense. Acting religious on the outside.
Matthew 23:27-28, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but
inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you
too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy
and lawlessness."
Romans 2:22
You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege?
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Adultery and sexual sins were not new to the religious Jews. As far back
as the exodus the Jews has a propensity towards sexual lascivisouness.
In I Samuel 2-5 the sons of the High priest, Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were
involved in the molestation of the women who came to the Tabernacle.
Adultery was not some new vice then, nor is it today. Even in our age we
see many Christian leaders fall because of adultery.
In Jesus day He taught where this all began:
Matthew 15:19, For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
The next indictment (verse 22b) is one of idolatry:
"You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?"
The word ABHOR means to turn away from something because of its stench.
There was a well know practice in Israel that when a pagan temple or alter
was torn down it was plundered, the best of items were kept by the religious
leaders. Some of these even found their way to the Temple.
And yet we find through out the OT law the prohibition for any Jew to keep
that which was an idol or used in idolatry.
Remember that one of Solomon's great problems was allowing his wives to
bring their idols into Israel. There was to be a total and complete separation
form idolatry and paganism on the part of the Jews.
The Jews would publicly abhor idols, yet hang onto them if they were of
value.
Nothing new: In I Samuel 10:11-17 Michal, Saul's daughter and David's first
wife had a pagan idol in her home.
Romans 2:23,24
You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor
God?
The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, just as
it is written.
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Paul refers to the scriptures in Isaiah 52:5 and Ezekiel 36:20.
The word BOAST is the same word we had in verse 17 where the religious Jew
was said to boast in God. It means to flaunt, to brag about one's position
or what one has.
Topic: PRIDE
Here they flaunt the Law. It came to be not God's Law but their Law, interpreted
in the Talmud, superior to the Laws of others. It was flaunted in the face
of the Gentile.
And then they were observed breaking this Law.
The result would be that the Gentiles seeing their actions would dishonor
God because of them.
So the name of God (his character) is blasphemed by the Gentiles because
of them:
Now the Jew who is hearing this will may say at this point that Paul is
right, they have been hypocrites. But at least they have circumcision and
no circumcised Jew is lost.
Romans 2:25
For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice the Law; but if
you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
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Remember, he is speaking to Jews. Circumcision in the OT economy was of
value but only if it was a sign of obedience to the Law.
CIRCUMCISION
1. Circumcision in the Age of Israel and for the descendants
of Abraham was practiced as a sign of religious identification.
2. Circumcision today is practiced as a matter of health and carries not
religious significance.
3. In ancient Israel circumcision meant five things:
a. The parents were being obedient to the commands of God in
that they were circumcising their male babies. Parents obedience, child
had no say nor felling in the matter.
b. Circumcision began with Abraham who was the single great great grandfather
of a nation. This was a nation formed by God, Israel.
Thus, circumcision was a symbol of that special nation
c. Circumcision served as a twofold reminder to the men of Israel,
the men who were to be the spiritual and political leaders of Israel, God's
nation.
1) A reminder in cohabitation: For a Jewish man to take a Gentile
wife was fine, but the wife was to convert and any children were to raised
as Jews, not Gentiles. Circumcision was a reminder of this.
2) A daily reminder that the Jewish man was part of a special nation. Every
time he went to the tree he looked down and was reminded that he was different.
During those often moments of contemplation against the wall he would think
about the fact that he was different.
d. By the time of the giving of the Mosaic Law, circumcision
also had a symbolic spiritual significance of the cutting away of the flesh
or the O.S.N.
Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be
no more stiff-necked (arrogant).
4. NOTE: Actual physical circumcision was for Israel and when Paul used
the term in the N.T. epistles it was either in reference to Israel or it
was strictly symbolic of our determination to shut down the flesh, the O.S.N.
Colossians 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made
without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ.
5. Therefore, Paul rejects actual physical circumcision as having any part
in the Christ Centered Life.
Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of
circumcision?
I Corinthians 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,
but the keeping of the commandments of God.
Galatians 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing.
Topic: CIRCUMCISION
Circumcision was of value to the Jews of the Old Testament, but they were
trying to make this physical sign more important than obedience.
But as any ritual, it was mechanical and when the mechanicism becomes more
important than faith which leads to obedience, there is a problem.
Romans 2:26,27
If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law,
will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
And will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will
he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision
are a transgressor of the Law?
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We can see in this verse that Paul is talking about something a lot more
important than the physical act.
Paul looks at the moral aspects of the Law, not the ceremonial aspects of
the Law which would have included circumcision.
PRINCIPLE: Lack of circumcision could not condemn the Gentile any more than
the presence of circumcision could save the Jew.
Romans 2:28,29
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that
which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of
the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from
men, but from God.
A TRUE JEW, in the spiritual definition, is one who is so internally as
well as externally.
This is not a new concept. Any Jew should have been able to figure this
out by going back to the patriarchs. There he would see that Jacob was a
believer and the nation of Israel can through him. His brother Esau was
not a believer and although they and the same parents, they were twins,
the line of Israel did not come through Esau.
Notice in the verses the contrasts Paul uses:
1. Outwardly vs. Inwardly
2. Flesh vs. Heart
3. Spirit vs. Letter of the Law
4. Men vs. God
Here Paul tells them that true circumcision is of the heart not of the flesh.
Colossians 2:11, In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made
without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ;
End Lesson 11
Grace Notes
Warren Doud
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