1 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, passing judgment; for when you judge someone else, you are passing judgment against yourself; since you who are judging do the same things he does.
2 We know that God’s judgment lands impartially on those who do such things;
3 do you think that you, a mere man passing judgment on others who do such things, yet doing them yourself, will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or perhaps you despise the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience; because you don’t realize that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to turn from your sins.
5 But by your stubbornness, by your unrepentant heart, you are storing up anger for yourself on the Day of Anger, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed;
6 for he will pay back each one according to his deeds.
7 To those who seek glory, honor and immortality by perseverance in doing good, he will pay back eternal life.
8 But to those who are self-seeking, who disobey the truth and obey evil, he will pay back wrath and anger.
9 Yes, he will pay back misery and anguish to every human being who does evil, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile;
10 but glory and honor andshalomto everyone who keeps doing what is good, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.
11 For God does not show favoritism.
12 All who have sinned outside the framework ofTorahwill die outside the framework ofTorah; and all who have sinned within the framework ofTorahwill be judged byTorah.
13 For it is not merely the hearers ofTorahwhom God considers righteous; rather, it is the doers of whatTorahsays who will be made righteous in God’s sight.
14 For whenever Gentiles, who have noTorah, do naturally what theTorahrequires, then these, even though they don’t haveTorah, for themselves areTorah!
15 For their lives show that the conduct theTorahdictates is written in their hearts. Their consciences also bear witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them
16 on a day when God passes judgment on people’s inmost secrets. (According to the Good News as I proclaim it, he does this through the Messiah Yeshua.)
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest onTorahand boast about God
18 and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from theTorah;
19 and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness,
20 an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in theTorahyou have the embodiment of knowledge and truth;
21 then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself? Preaching, “Thou shalt not steal,” do you steal?
22 Saying, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts?
23 You who take such pride inTorah, do you, by disobeying theTorah, dishonor God? —
24 as it says in theTanakh, “For it is because of you that God’s name is blasphemed by theGoyim.”
25 For circumcision is indeed of value if you do whatTorahsays. But if you are a transgressor ofTorah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!
26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of theTorah, won’t his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27 Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys theTorahwill stand as a judgment on you who have had ab’rit-milahand haveTorahwritten out but violate it!
28 For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical.
29 On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.