Hello, dear reader! Today we’re jumping off from Chapter 2 of Romans, in which we’re reminded of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience. Paul says one of the reasons for God’s kindness is to lead us to repentance. God wants to turn our hearts toward him and away from evil. How does he measure us, and how do we measure up?
Here’s the text:
Romans 2:1-16 (NIV)
2 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 being, 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. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism. 12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Isn’t gratitude a huge motivation for doing the right thing? We want to be right with God because persisting willfully and knowingly in sin just feels ungrateful in the face of his gifts and promises. By gifts I mean: living and moving and having our beings, this moment, the vast gorgeous universe, and the particular consolations of each other in it.
And yet how quickly we are able to identify and condemn (our own) sins in others. What is Jesus’ attitude toward judgment? When the crowd demands punishment for the adulterous woman he says: “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” He always brings us back to the truth that all are sinners. This is hard to deal with in the context of the law. Don’t we have to hold people accountable? Don’t we have to have punishment? But who then is fit to carry that out? No justice without mercy, no mercy without justice. It’s so easy to get it wrong.
I skirt the issue for myself by thinking: render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s, but of course as a citizen I rely and depend on all who do that difficult work in the world. Here’s another instance for gratitude, being thankful for those who devote their lives to seeking justice in the here and now.
God’s divine judgment seems somehow separate from the sins we confess and are already forgiven, but maybe not? Even though Psalm 103 says he places our sins as far from us as the west is from the east, today’s verses from Romans say: “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. God will repay each person according to what they have done.” (2:5-6). Terrifying. And yet, it’s impossible to be without sin. So we have to rely ever further and more completely on grace. You can see how people developed the idea of Purgatory to work all this out.
How do we nurture the qualities of justice and mercy in ourselves? Often we’re not very kind to our selves, the little child God made. As Ethel Waters said, “I am somebody, ‘cause God don’t make no junk!” This remains true when we are tempted to judge each other. No one is junk to be discarded, because we are all made in God’s image, however degraded or corrupted we have become.
In your life, are there places you see an awareness of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience taking root?
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How do we measure up? Pretty woefully I’m afraid these days; kindness, forbearance, patience are in shockingly short supply! The three “hounds of hell” as described by Howard Thurman, fear, deception, and hate, ravage our politics and our country. Thurman wrote “Hatred destroys finally the core of the life of the hater.” Gulp. The only antidote is love, and “love is possible only between two freed spirits.” I believe Jesus commands us to love our enemies, a nearly impossible task, in order to save us from ourselves. As you wrote, “No one is junk to be discarded, because we are all made in God’s image, however degraded or corrupted we have become.” Even our enemies are made in God’s image. One solution, one act of kindness & forbearance, suggested by Thurman is to meet the “other” where he/she is and to treat them as “if he were where he ought to be.” Whenever we see that take place, such as a hug in courtroom between a victim and a perpetrator, we see God — his invisible love becomes visible. In my own life, I am trying to hold my tongue more, look beyond the surface of things, and remember that each person I encounter is a representative of God — made in God’s image. May God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience be taking root in my soul; may I be kind to myself as well as others.