All this points straight at the Jewish conscience, though the arrow is levelled from a covert. If that conscience might but be reached! He longs to reach it, first for the unbeliever's own sake, that he might be led through the narrow pass of self-condemnation into the glorious freedom of faith and love. But also it was of first importance that the spiritual pride of the Jews should be conquered, or at least exposed, for the sake of the mission-converts already won. The first Christians, newly brought from paganism, must have regarded Jewish opinion with great attention and deference. Not only were their apostolic teachers Jews, and the Scriptures of the Prophets, to which those teachers always pointed, Jewish; but the weary Roman world of late years had been disposed to own with more and more distinctness that if there were such a thing as a true voice from heaven to man it was to be heard among that unattractive yet impressive race which was seen everywhere, and yet refused to be "reckoned among the nations." The Gospels and the Acts show us instances enough of educated Romans drawn towards Israel and the covenant; and abundant parallels are given us by the secular historians and satirists. The Jews, in the words of Professor Gwatkin, were "the recognized non-conformists" of the Roman world. At this very time the Emperor was the enamoured slave of a brilliant woman who was known to be proselyted to the Jewish creed. It was no slight trial to converts in their spiritual infancy to meet everywhere the question why the sages of Jerusalem had slain this Jewish Prophet, Jesus, and why everywhere the synagogues denounced His name and His disciples. The true answer would be better understood if the bigot himself could be brought to say, "God, be merciful to me the sinner."
[Sidenote: Ver. 1.] =Wherefore you are without excuse, O man, every man who judges; when you judge the other party you pass judgment on yourself; for you practise the same things, you who judge.= [Sidenote: Ver. 2.] =For[17] we know=--this is a granted point between us--=that God's judgment is truth-wise,= is a reality, in awful earnest, =upon those who practise such things.= [Sidenote: Ver. 3.] =Now is this your calculation, O man, you who judge those who practise such things, and do them yourself, that you will escape God's judgment?= Do you surmise that some by-way of privilege and indulgence will be kept open for you? [Sidenote: Ver. 4.] =Or do you despise the wealth of His kindness, and of His forbearance and longsuffering= --despise it, by mistaking it for mere indulgence, or indifference-- =knowing not that God's kind ways (τὸ χρηστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ) lead you to repentance?= [Sidenote: Ver. 5.] =No, true to (κατὰ) your own hardness, your own unrepentant heart, you are hoarding for yourself a wrath= which will be felt =in the day of wrath,= the day =of disclosure of the righteous judgment of God,= [Sidenote: Ver. 6.] =who will requite each individual according to his works.= What will be that requital, and its law? [Sidenote: Ver. 7.] =To those who, on the line of (κατὰ) perseverance in good work, seek,= as their point of gravitation, =glory, and honour, and immortality,= He will requite =life eternal.= [Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =But for those who side with (τοῖς ἐκ) strife,= who take part with man, with self, with sin, against the claims and grace of God, and, =while they disobey the truth= of conscience, =obey unrighteousness,= yielding the will to wrong, =there shall be wrath and fierce anger,= [Sidenote: Ver. 9.] =trouble and bewilderment, inflicted on every soul of man,= man =working out what is evil, alike Jew=--Jew =first--and Greek.= [Sidenote: Ver. 10.] =But glory, and honour, and peace= shall be =for every one who works what is good, alike for Jew=--Jew =first--and Greek.= [Sidenote: Ver. 11.] =For there is no favouritism in God's court.=