1So you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge someone else. When you judge another person, you condemn yourself, because you who judge do the same things.
2And we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is true and right.
3So think about this: you judge people who do such things, yet you do them yourself. Do you think you will escape the judgment of God?
4Or do you make light of how very kind and patient he is, and how long he holds back his anger? Do you not know that God's kindness is leading you to repent?
5But your heart is hard and will not repent. So you are storing up anger for yourself, for the day of anger, when God's righteous judgment will be made known.
6He will give to every person according to what they have done.
7To those who keep on patiently doing good, and who look for glory and honour and life that never ends, he will give eternal life.
8But for those who argue against the truth and will not obey it, and who obey what is wrong, there will be anger and fury.
9There will be trouble and pain for every person who does evil, for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile.
10But there will be glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile.
11For God treats no one as more important than another.
12All who have sinned without the law will also die without the law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
13(For it is not those who hear the law who are right before God. It is those who obey the law who will be counted righteous.
14For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things the law says, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
15They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts. Their conscience also speaks for them, and their thoughts either accuse them or defend them.)
16This will happen on the day when God will judge the secrets of people through Jesus Christ, as my gospel says.
17Look, you call yourself a Jew. You rest on the law, and you boast about God.
18You know his will, and you can tell what is best, because you have been taught from the law.
19You are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20a teacher of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because in the law you have the pattern of knowledge and of truth.
21So then, you teach someone else. Do you not teach yourself? You preach that a person should not steal. Do you steal?
22You say a person should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You hate idols. Do you rob temples?
23You boast about the law. Do you dishonour God by breaking the law?
24For as it is written, "The name of God is spoken against among the Gentiles because of you."
25Circumcision is indeed of value, if you keep the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26So if a man who is not circumcised keeps the righteousness of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27And the man who is uncircumcised by nature, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you? For you have the written law and circumcision, yet you break the law.
28For a person is not a Jew by what is seen on the outside, and circumcision is not what is done on the outside, in the flesh.
29But a person is a Jew by what is inside, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written law. Such a person is praised not by people, but by God.