There is at least one thing that you be sure that I will
never claim—that I am a good athlete. There is a good reason for this—I’m not!
Not in the least! As a youth I can remember trying my hat at soccer and
basketball. They put me in as a defender in soccer where I kicked more dirt
around than I ever did the ball and when they did let me play basketball, I was
rarely trusted with a shot. Swimming? the best place I received in any swim meet was 2nd out of two! Running?—not too much. Why? I'm prone to dry heaves. Baseball? never
tried it (probably a good thing too as that may have led to severe injury
behind the plate). Football…get real? The one sport I did enjoy somewhat was tennis.
However, there is at least one person I could never beat and he is sitting here
today—my dad. Though I had the newest racket around, my dad mercilessly beat me
time and time again with his wooden racket! He would claim in a cheeky tone of voice after our matches that he had the advantage and would hold up that old Wilson racket with the word "Advantage" printed on the handle. Intramural stuff in college? Please, the most exercise I got was walking to the library and back from my
dorm room. For me to claim any athletic ability whatsoever would be to smack of
the greatest hypocrisy. Why? Because there is no walk to back up such talk.
There is no back up in my giddy-up. Seeing as how no one likes a hypocrite, I
stay away from pretending I’ve got it going on in the sports department.
Hypocrisy of any kind is off-putting. In fact, it is a
charge lodged against Christians and it was a charge lodged at the very people
Paul determines to discuss next in Romans 2. Let us look at three characteristics
of the hypocrites he address so that we might learn how to keep unbelievers
from hating us and the God we serve so much.
1) The Talk-2:17-20
Let us remind ourselves of where we are at in Paul’s
presentation. For the Better part of Romans 1-3 Paul is working on making one
crucial point—all are sinners and therefore, in desperate need of what only
Jesus can provide in salvation. In Romans 1:18-32 Paul demonstrates how the
irreligious lost are guilty. He states that although these had the truth of God
in creation, they suppressed the truth in unrighteousness and were handed over
to their sins. In Romans 2:1-16, Paul discusses the culpability of the
religious/moral gentile. Though these do not have a law like the Jews, they are
still guilty of breaking what Paul calls the law written on their hearts—i.e.
their conscience. Every human being is capable of discerning right and wrong
and therefore more than capable of being guilty, including the lawless gentiles.
This leaves only one group left to discuss—the Jew. Are the Jews, God’s chosen
people, as in need of Jesus as the irreligious and the moral Gentile? Paul
answers this question in the remainder of chapter 2 and the beginning of
chapter 3.
To this end, Paul first describes the “talk,” or, what it
was that the Jews of his day were claiming/saying. Just to make sure his reader
understands exactly whom Paul is addressing, he provides a helpful
transition—“but if you bear the name ‘Jew’ and rely upon the law” (2:17). Any
self-respecting Jew reading this would have heartily affirmed their status as
one of God’s chosen people. After all, this is what being a “Jew” was all
about! Only this particular ethnic group could claim this label and all of the
historical implications thereof. Not only that, but Paul also mentions the
“law” that set them apart—“and rely upon the law” (2:17). Just as the name Jew
rendered God’s people unique, so did the Law that he gave them on Sinai and in
the Old Testament. No other people had a law like this handed down to them.
it is clear that Paul is now talking about someone new. No
longer is he referring to the obviously lost or the moral, yet uncircumcised Gentile.
Here, Paul is addressing the very center of the religious in-crowd. Surely if
anyone had it going on spiritually, it would have been the Jews with their law.
That many Jews in Paul’s day believed that they populated
the very center of the in-crowd surrounding God almighty is made clear in the
remaining conditional clauses of verses 17-19. Each of these identifies
something that you would have no doubt heard from the religious Jews during the
first century. First, in so many words the Jews would have claimed “We are the children of God!” This is
what Paul means when he says “and boast in God and know His will and approve
the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law” (2:17b-18).
Because the Jews enjoyed a special place in God’s historical program, many
boasted about their connection with God and the will of God that always seemed
to include them especially. Again, having such a connection with the God of the
universe gave them, at least in their own mind, unprecedented access to the
“things that are essential” and awarded them exclusive blessings (such as the
Law itself).
Like the A-list actors and actresses we watch in the movies
and read about in magazines, these Jews believed that they had it going on in
more ways than one.
Not only were the Jews claiming to be children of God, they
were claiming to be a shining example to others—“and are confident that you
yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness”
(2:19). Think about it: if you were convinced that you and your people had
exclusive access to and affiliation with God, it would be easy to begin
believing that you have a monopoly on wisdom from which others could stand to learn.
After all, God had called the Jews, not the Gentiles (at least in the Old Testament).
God had given the Jews the Law, not the Gentiles. Surely if anyone was
qualified to help his fellow man it was a first century Jew!
This makes me think about famous people who are given something
or awarded an opportunity. Often times, these then turn around and believe that
they are now somehow an expert on an exemplar on a particular subject. One of
my pet-peeves is how this plays out in celebrities, actors, and other Hollywood
types. Some of those in this arena believe that by playing a role—especially a
moral or inspirational role—they are automatically worthy of being an example
to others in a particular area.
However, like these Hollywood types I mentioned earlier, the
Jews took it another step further. These not only claimed “we are children of
God!” and “we are an example,” they also were prone to saying “we are correct!”
Paul continues describing the “talk” of the Jews thusly: “a corrector of the
foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of
knowledge and of the truth.”
Let us return to our Hollywood types mentioned earlier. Many
in the world of showbiz and cinema believe that playing a certain role
automatically awards them the kind of experience and education that few others
have on a particular person of subject. These then become exceedingly preachy
to those devoid of such an experience. Because I played a scientist I am now
some kind of leading expert and advice-giver on environmental matters. Because
I played in an old western I now can preach about civil rights and racial
inequality today. The list goes on. Though reasons behind these logical leaps
from pretend to activism and dogmatism elude me, this is eerily similar to how
the Jews of Paul’s day behaved. It was part of their “talk.”
However, what the Jews were claiming was not incorrect. They
were, in fact, the children of God and as such they were supposed to be an
example to others and speak on moral matters with authority. The talk was big
talk, but it was accurate talk—that is, if they were willing to back it up.
What we have in this passage is a classic example of a grand
build up before an epic take down. As the diverse church to which Paul was
writing would have read this, I imagine at this point the Jews in the audience would
have been sitting comfortably. Paul had already convicted any lost soul that
had accidently walked in to service that day (in his comments made in Rom. 1)
and had already called out the religious Gentile (in Rom. 2:1-16—after all,
they do try really hard). Here, Paul seemed to be telling a different story
about a different and distinct people. People who, given these comments made
thus far, would have felt pretty comfortable and justified. Some may have even
been starting to say things like “see, I told you to listen to me and follow my
lead! I’m a Jew, you are not!” However, Paul will soon cut many of these
self-righteous Jews down to size as he moves on and describes their “walk.” In
so doing, Paul proves the adage “there is no one quite so blind as those who
are confident they can see” (Mounce, 99).
2) The Walk-2:21-23
Just to be sure that the right audience members were paying
close attention Paul continues by saying “you”—i.e. you Jews that I have just
spent a while describing—“You therefore, who teach another, do you not teach
yourself?” (2:21). Here, Paul begins a series of biting rhetorical questions, each
more painful than the last. Every one of these calls into question the “walk”
of the very ones who “talk a big talk.” In his first question—“do you not teach
yourself?”—the assumption is that they were not carrying out what they were
teaching. In other words, these were not taking what they were dishing nor
where they personally subscribing to what they were selling.
I cannot help but draw an analogy between this and many
celebrities who seek to save the environment. These same save-the-planet types make
no qualms about jetting around the world, insisting on expensive gas-guzzling
cars, lavish parties, often with exotic meats, and producing multi-million
dollar movies on location in the third world that would/could put that money to
far better use. Not much back up in the giddy-up. Not much walk to match the
talk—that is, in some cases.
Ultimately, Paul calls out self-righteous Jews for the
hypocrites they are. As they were teaching others from atop their pedestal how
to live, they themselves were not following their own instruction.
However, Paul doesn’t stop there, he gets personal and
specific. In the next rhetorical quip Paul asks, “You who say that one should
not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?...”(2:22a). It is obvious here
that Paul believed many of the Jews he was addressing were not as “buttoned up”
and pious as they let on. It is the same observation that Jesus makes in John
8.
In John 8 Jesus confront a spectacle in which a young woman
caught in adultery is about to be stoned by the scribes and the Pharisees.
After interrupting the proceedings, Jesus says these famous words—“He who is
without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn. 8:7).
Many scholars believe that the “sin” Jesus is referring to is the same sin for
which they were about to stone this woman—adultery. In other words, the subtext
was—“He who has not committed adultery like this woman, let him be the first to
throw a stone at her.” What is so compelling about this scene is after Jesus’
words “they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones,…” (Jn.
8:8).
It is obvious that in Paul’s day there were still some
self-righteous, religious Jews who were guilty of the very things they were
accusing others of behind closed doors!
However, that is not all that some of the Jews were guilty
of. Paul continues and asks “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (2:22b).
Paul is calling out the exaltation of something worldly above God. Though this
was to be expected of the godless and lawless (see Rom. 1-2), surely the Jews
would not fall prey to idolatry. Unfortunately, many did. In fact, Josephus
reports an incident in which several Jews appropriated for their own use a gift
from a recent convert intended for the temple in Jerusalem (Ant. 18.81-84). After all it was widely
known that large stores of valuable treasures were often kept in the temples.
What was supposed to be used for worshipping God, was, on occasion, taken and
applied in other ways—demonstrating that something else had taken God’s special
place.
Paul tells these Jews that they can preach against idolatry
all that they want, but their robbing of the temple for personal gain proved
that they were guilty of idolatry themselves!
The final question Paul asks is perhaps the most personally
convicting and general of the four—“You who boast in the Law, through your
breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?...” (2:23). Paul’s point is this: if you
are so proud of your exclusive Law and believe that it sets you apart, why don’t
you follow it? Instead, by acting like everyone else without the Law, you
dishonor God! In fact, the participles used here describe an ongoing kind of
dishonoring—i.e. “you are continually bringing dishonor to God.” Such dishonor
is brought on by consistently breaking the Law that claimed to cherish.
When Paul addresses the “walk” of many of the Jews, he is
unimpressed. He asks in vv. 21-23: 1) Are you really walking the walk? 2) Aren’t
you just as idolatrous? 3) Can’t you be just as idolatrous? 4) Don’t you break
the law too? Though proud as the beginning of this passage was read, I imagine
many self-righteous Jews embarrassingly sinking into their chairs as this was
read. That said, what is more troubling than their embarrassment, is the
consequence that this kind of living spells for the unbelieving world.
3) The
Consequence-2:24
In revealing the egregious implication of hypocrisy Paul
says “’For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of You,’
just as it is written” (2:24). Here, Paul endorses a quote from Isa. 52:5.
There, God’s name was blasphemed because his chosen people were being oppressed
(many weren’t keen on believing in a God that would allow such). Paul applies
this sentiment differently in Romans 2. In verse 24, Paul makes the case that
God’s name is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the reprehensible
conduct of the Jews.
Their hypocrisy proved to be the biggest kind of turn-off
for the observing world. This grieved Paul greatly. Who cares about what this
meant for the individual Jew; the very Name of God (all that He is and stands
for) was being drug through the mud.
So What?
“Shame, shame!” We shout along with Paul in this portion of
his letter to the Romans. “How hypocritical! Could the Jews not see acute damage
they were doing to God’s kingdom-building work?”
However, before we pack up our things and go our separate
ways with an air of self-righteousness ourselves, perhaps we ought to ask
ourselves a few questions lest we become the pot calling the kettle black. After
all today’s conservative Christian is, in many cultural respects, quite similar
to yesterday’s traditional Jew.
Are we, am I, walking the walk? Or, like the Jews in Paul’s
day, are we just a bunch of talk?
Can’t we prove just as adulterous? Would it surprise you to
learn that the divorce rate in the church is the same for those outside the
church, that 50% of Christian men have a problem with pornography according to
most statistics, and that 50% of evangelical pastors have viewed porn at least
once in the last year?
Aren’t we, at times, just as idolatrous? So many people,
including myself, betray that their real hope and their real security in a
season or in a moment is in something other than God. So often we fear other
things more than God or long for things more than Jesus or are preoccupied with
agendas that are in no way connected to our mission.
Don’t we break the law also—that is the very law in God’s
word that we hold up and preach week after week?
So often we talk a great talk but do not back up our
giddy-up with the right walk. As a result, the world is turned off from God. One
of the biggest criticisms unbelievers lodge at today’s church is the same that
was lodged at so many Jews—“they are a bunch of hypocrites!” So what are we to
do?
Correctly answering the charge of Hypocrisy and reaching the
lost is not pretending that we’re perfect. The answer is confessing that we are
not—Jesus is! We, those who some might consider “close to God,” just like the
those in the who are far from Him, are desperate for what only Jesus can
provide in Salvation. This is Paul’s point. It doesn’t matter if we are a Jew, a
Gentile, or a back-row Baptist, we are the kind of wreck that only Jesus can
mend. Let’s at least be honest about that! To do thus is the beginning of
salvation and the first step in reaching a world of brokenness.
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