You who pass judgment on someone else

Romans 2:1-5 (TNIV) -

1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.3 So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

My thoughts -

Paul spends the second half of Romans 1 describing the worst kinds of sinners he has encountered among the gentiles. He says this of them in verses 29-31:

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

And then he turns right around at the beginning of chapter 2 and tells the church in Rome not to pass judgement. He tells them that, in doing so, they would condemn themselves because they do the same things. Wow. That's harsh. But are we Christians without sin?

Do we show "contempt for the riches of (God's) kindness, forbearance and patience" by not turning from our own sins? Do we go into our churches, worship on Sunday, and then leave unchanged? Are we doing what we're supposed to be doing or are we looking at all of the "sins" outside of the church and condemning "the world" while continuing in our own sins? Do we think that God's grace and mercy covers us but not anyone else? Are we immune from the wrath of God that we would have others experience?

Sometimes it seems like we, the church want to be a prophetic voice for God in a fallen world. But we need to get our own affairs in order before we start inviting God's wrath and judgement. We may only be asking to be condemned, ourselves.