Therefore you are inexcusable, o man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practise the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practise such things.
Romans 2, 1.2.
How does it come about that people are ready to accuse others of shortcomings in religious or moral fields, yet overlook their own sinfulness?
How can highly civilised nations condemn and combat genocide, yet simultaneously deny unborn life the protection that it, above all, needs? And what is it that makes them feel morally superior to war criminals?
Everyone can quote examples of self-righteous judgments from personal experience. How come?
Does anyone perhaps think that his background or church membership gives him a better standing before God than the heathen or blatant sinners? Or do we value a high moral standard but fail to abide by it in our own life? Or have we learned to put up with the contrast between doctrine and practice? What, in the final instance, is at the bottom of this readiness to condemn others, although we are ourselves guilty before God? The fact that sin hardens our hearts and makes us blind to our own lost state and guilt before God is the answer to all these questions.
Therefore we have a pointer to God’s unerring and unbribable judgment on everyone’s sin in the admonition in today’s verses above. Let us take it seriously!