The Blessings of Romans 2:1

[Vince Massi]

Romans 2:1 is easily the most-hated verse in this entire forum, so I want to show some blessings from it. The most obvious is that it tells us that scorners are describing themselves, not the people they are attacking. When several members broke off, blaming Ransom for his hateful posts, I was able to use the verse to help comfort them.  I'll be giving other benefits, but for now, you might benefit by reading the verse in several different translations at  http://biblehub.com/romans/2-1.htm

 

[Ransom]

Did Vince just call me a scorner and hateful? "For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things" (Rom. 2:1).

Vince just proved himself to be a scorner and hateful.

Who doesn't answer questions.

Or other questions.

 

[Ransom]

So I noticed this topic was locked when I logged on, and wondering why, I checked the moderator log. Turns out it was me.

Sorry about that. I must have hit the "Lock Topic" link with a stray mouse click. I have nothing against this thread. Carry on.

 

[FSSL]

Vince may have locked it. He has access to the real stats ... lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Route_70]

Carry on.

Were you "Night Bus" on the previous iteration of FFF?

 

[Vince Massi]

Another blessing of Romans 2:1 is that it helps you deal with troubled people.

When I taught Christian school, an occasional irate parent would become furious because their child had to obey the rules. I would listen in fascination to their accusations against me. Some were deadly accurate. Some were plain stupid. And all of them were delivered with the same facial expressions, tone of voice, and conviction. Roughly half the accusations were true.

But a different parent, acting the same way, would have a different list of accusations (There was some overlap, of course). I could see that the parents' accusations were all coming from the same source, but what was the source?

Romans 2:1 explains that the parents were describing their own sins, not mine. By the laws of chance, their accusations were sometimes true, but it was chance, not discernment.

So when a parent accused me of lying, I knew that the parent already knew the student was guilty and was lying. I quit trying to convince them that the student was guilty and would explain the need to keep classroom order, and it usually worked.

When a parent accused me of hating the student, I realized that the parent was bitter at the student's constant bad behavior at home. I would then talk about the need to be patient with the child, the necessity of presenting a united front, and some advice on dealing with teens.

Did it work? Less than half of all Christian school teachers entered their third year of teaching. I taught for ten.

 

[Ransom]

Questions, questions, so many unanswered questions . . .

Vince, Romans 2:1 is a preamble to the second part of Paul's argument. In chapter 1, he has argued that the Gentiles are lost without Christ. In chapter 2, he is anticipating the response of religious Jews, who find the practices of the Gentiles offensive. Basically he is saying that they are no better off; as he writes later in the chapter:

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. (Rom. 2:9-12)

Tell us how you justify using Romans 2:1 every time someone says something critical about you, and turning their criticism back on themselves. That is a gross misappropriation of Paul's words, and you know it.

 

[Ransom]

Oh, yeah, did I mention there were many unanswered questions? And some other questions? And these questions too?

 

[Vince Massi]

Another blessing of Romans 2:1 is that it gives you an accurate way to evaluate yourself. Do you want to know where you stand spiritually? Look at what you say when you criticize others, and you'll know where you stand. It is brutally painful, and brutally honest, but Romans 2:1 does provide you with a good way to see yourself as God sees you.

 

[Vince Massi]

When Jack first announced that he was rejecting the Word of God in favor of the KJV, I immediately assumed that he did it because he wanted more man-made rules. He had just had the Dave Hyles scandal (still in progress), so he wanted to deal with  sin by adding more rules.

According to Romans 2:1, I was describing myself. At that time, I did believe that man-made rules are both the cause and result of holiness. While my accusation might be true about Jack, it was definitely true about me.

It didn't work for Jack, as his church dropped from over 40,000 to less than 6,000. That's one thing that helped me reject that doctrine.

 

[Ransom]

According to Romans 2:1, I was describing myself.

Because you're a pious Jew looking down on Gentiles?

Jack taught you well. Stop abusing Scripture.

 

[FreeToBeMe]

It didn't work for Jack, as his church dropped from over 40,000 to less than 6,000. That's one thing that helped me reject that doctrine.

So when you saw the rats jumping off, you finally realized the ship was sinking? 

 

[Vince Massi]

It didn't work for Jack, as his church dropped from over 40,000 to less than 6,000. That's one thing that helped me reject that doctrine.

So when you saw the rats jumping off, you finally realized the ship was sinking?

No. I knew the ship was sinking when Jack turned Ruckmanite.

But I held on, hoping that things would turn around. Over a period of years, I slowly realized that HAC and FBCH were far more corrupt than I had realized.When Jack Schaap's scandal broke, I finally admitted that it is hopeless.