In chapter 1, Paul has just described the heathen Greeks who have banished God from life.  His long list of descriptive terms comes to a climax in one Greek word: hubris.  In Greek thought, this was the vice that courted destruction at the hand of the gods and carried two main lines of thought: 1) It describes the spirit of the person who is so proud that he defies the gods.  It is the insolent pride that goes before the fall.  It is forgetting that man is a creature.  It is the spirit of the person who is so confident in personal wealth, power and strength they think that life can be lived alone.  2) It describes the person who is wantonly and sadistically cruel and insulting.  Aristotle described it as the spirit which harms and grieves someone else, not for the sake of revenge and not for any advantage that may be gained from it, but simply for the sheer pleasure of hurting.  These are people who get pleasure from seeing someone wince at a cruel saying.  These are people who take a devilish delight in inflicting mental and physical pain on others.

Now, in chapter 2, Paul addresses the Jews.  Let's read verses 1-16:

The word "judge" appears in one form or another 302 times in the Bible.  In the New Testament there are at least 8 passages of Scripture that command us not to judge others, but to leave judgment to God.

Every Jew agreed with Paul's description of the heathen world being under the condemnation of God, but never dreamed that Israel was under the same condemnation.  Like many today, they felt themselves to be privileged and excluded from the wrath of God.  Here Paul forcibly points out that when the Jew condemns the Gentile, he is passing judgment upon himself.  The very act of pointing out the faults of another reveals a motivation of pride and superiority in the one who passes judgment.  The Jew believed that all non-Jews were destined for judgment but that he would be immune from the wrath of God, not because of any special personal goodness, but simply because he was a Jew.

When Paul says those who judge practice the same things, he is not necessarily saying their actions are exactly the same, but their hearts are the same...both are in rebellion against the Creator.

In verses 1-11, Paul reminds the Jews of four important things:

1. He warns them that they are trading on the mercy of God...that they are trying to take advantage of the great kindness of God and ignoring His wrath.
2. They were using the mercy of God as an invitation to sin rather than an incentive to repent. Paul insists that in
3. God's economy there is no "most favored nation" clause.  There may be nations which are picked out for a special task or for a special responsibility, but none is picked out for special privilege and special consideration.
4. Paul insists that behavior is the external evidence of having a right relationship with God, not racial heritage.

If verses 5-11 were all Paul wrote about on the subject of works, it would be easy to conclude that he and James were saying the same thing (as some scholars believe)…salvation is obtained by a combination of faith and works. But we can see from his teaching in other places that Paul does not see faith and works as two separate components of salvation, but one in the same (Galatians 2:20-21; 1Corinthians 15:10).  It is not the works we do for God that count, but only the works done by Jesus through us.  In contrast with what we saw in James (2:18), the works that count do not show our faith, but reveal the faithfulness of Jesus.

It can't mean that God treats every individual exactly alike in every aspect of life because every individual is not born into the same circumstances with the same resources.  Every human is called in to the great demonstration to play a unique role…their scenario is a unique gift and calling from God. He shows His impartiality in the fact that all are called…no one is exempt!

In the verses following, Paul is drawing on one of the most common Jewish definitions of the distinction between Jew and Gentile when he describes those who "have the law" and those who "do not have the law".  Although it initially seems that Paul is drawing a distinction, he is, in fact, leading to a conclusion that ultimately there is no final difference between those who "have the law" and those who "do not have the law".  In both cases sin is judged and condemned.

The Greek word is apollumi and is variously translated by the English words destroy, lost, perish, ruin or kill in any of their forms.  The definitions found in many of the most often quoted Bible dictionaries and lexicons are nothing more than the reflections of the mistranslations of the King James or other versions of the Bible.  Sadly, much of what is offered as "translation" has more to do with the theological preconceptions of the translator than the commonly accepted definitions of the words found in their secular usage.

The English words destroy, perish and kill generally convey the meaning "to deprive of life".  But apollumi is used to describe something that was lost but subsequently found, as in the "lost sheep", the "lost coin" and the "lost son" in Luke 15.  In none of these scenarios has the sheep, the coin or the son died (in fact the coin never had life) so the word apollumi cannot mean "to deprive of life" in these instances.

Word definitions must be tied to context. Without understanding the context, the true meaning of any statement cannot be determined.

For example, the word "course" as in "I love this course."

1. Spoken as one leaves a classroom
2. Spoken on hole number 18
3. Spoken during an elegant meal
4. Spoken snidely during a lecture

Jesus said "He who is finding his soul will be losing (destroying) it, and he who loses (destroys) his soul on my account will be finding it" (Matthew 10:39, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33). Is Jesus urging them to commit suicide? The destruction of the soul does not mean death. It means to disassemble or destroy the old man of sin, to destroy our carnal nature, to make us into a New Creation in Christ.

Romans 6:6 describes this process: "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin."

The statement that the "Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost (destroyed)" (Luke 19:10) is the key to the meaning of apollumi. This Bible passage refers specifically to Zaccheus, who was lost (destroyed). Because he was lost (destroyed), he was ready to be found and saved.

The Greek word apollumi is often given an interpretation that means death from which there is no resurrection, or annihilation, a state from which salvation is impossible. But this passage in Luke 19:10 destroys this premise. Instead of the lost being beyond salvation, they alone are eligible for salvation! It is impossible to rescue a man who is already safe. It is only when he is in a "lost" condition, denoted by the word apollumi, that salvation can operate in his behalf.

The terms seek and save mean the opposite of destroy. So the one who is "destroyed," is really just lost, not annihilated, or no one would seek after him in order to save him. He must be in a state which needs salvation or Christ would not have come to seek and to save him. This passage proves beyond a doubt that "destruction" is a salvageable condition, not a state beyond the reach of salvation. In addition, please notice that only the "lost" are saved. This fact reverses the usual idea of destruction. God seeks what He has lost!

Destruction is a relative term. The coin was lost (apollumi) in relation to the woman. The sheep was lost (apollumi) in relation to the shepherd. The prodigal son was lost (apollumi) in relation to his father. They were not dead, but they were away from the woman, the shepherd, and the father, respectively. Does this prove that they were outside the sphere of salvation? No, it actually proves the opposite. Destruction is the prelude to salvation! Destruction never means annihilation, irrespective of how closely it may seem to approach that idea in some cases.

The story of the Potter (Jeremiah 18:1-7) reveals that it is the Potter Himself who crushes the vessel when He discovers it is marred. But the vessel never leaves the Potter's hands during its "destruction" and re-creation into a New Vessel!

I am amazed that with reference to Romans 2:16, most commentators only superficially describe Paul's use of the phrase according to my gospel by observing that Paul is here identifying himself as a preacher of the Gospel and never even mention the phrase through Christ Jesus. In my study, I could only find two commentators that even tried to clarify this phrase with observations like this: "At this point in Paul’s argument the way a person can secure a righteous standing before God has not yet been presented. Here the emphasis is on the justice of God’s judgment, leading to the conclusion that nobody, on his own, can be declared righteous by God."

I believe that after describing the degradation of the heathen in chapter 1 and boldly warning the Jews in the first 15 verses of chapter 2 that they are no better, Paul concludes that all are condemned and that God will not show partiality because according to his gospel, in the end, every person will not only be judged by Christ Jesus, but through Christ Jesus.

Being judged through Christ Jesus means that the sin-debt of every human being has been paid by the supreme and perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and everyone stands reconciled and blameless before God the Father.

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