Romans 2:15

2:1-16 The Jews thought themselves a holy people, entitled to their privileges by right, while they were unthankful, rebellious, and unrighteous. But all who act thus, of every nation, age, and description, must be reminded that the judgment of God will be according to their real character. The case is so plain, that we may appeal to the sinner's own thoughts. In every wilful sin, there is contempt of the goodness of God. And though the branches of man's disobedience are very various, all spring from the same root. But in true repentance, there must be hatred of former sinfulness, from a change wrought in the state of the mind, which disposes it to choose the good and to refuse the evil. It shows also a sense of inward wretchedness. Such is the great change wrought in repentance, it is conversion, and is needed by every human being. The ruin of sinners is their walking after a hard and impenitent heart. Their sinful doings are expressed by the strong words, treasuring up wrath. In the description of the just man, notice the full demand of the law. It demands that the motives shall be pure, and rejects all actions from earthly ambition or ends. In the description of the unrighteous, contention is held forth as the principle of all evil. The human will is in a state of enmity against God. Even Gentiles, who had not the written law, had that within, which directed them what to do by the light of nature. Conscience is a witness, and first or last will bear witness. As they nature

. Conscience is a witness, and first or last will bear witness. As they kept or broke these natural laws and dictates, their consciences either acquitted or condemned them. Nothing speaks more terror to sinners, and more comfort to saints, than that Christ shall be the Judge. Secret services shall be rewarded, secret sins shall be then punished, and brought to light.

Which shew (οἵτινες ἐνδείκνυνται) Rev., better, in that they shew, the double relative specifying the class to which they belong, and therefore the reason for what precedes. Shew, properly, in themselves (ἐν). The work of the law The conduct corresponding to the law. Their conscience also bearing witness (συμμαρτυρούσης αὐτῶν τῆς συνειδήσεως) For conscience, see on 1 Peter 3:16. The force of ούν with the verb is therewith; i.e., with the prescript of the law, respecting the agreement or disagreement of the act with it. So Rev. The meanwhile (μεταξὺ) Rev. renders with one another. Their thoughts one with another. The phrase μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων is variously explained. Some alternately, now acquitting and now condemning. Others, among themselves, as in internal debate. So Alford, "thought against thought in inner strife." Others again, accusations or vindications carried on between Gentiles and Gentiles. As the other parts of the description refer to the individual soul in itself and not to relations with others, the explanation expressed in Rev. - the mutual relations and interchanges of the individual thoughts - seems preferable.

By the work of the law, either understand the sum of the law, which is, To love God above all, and our neighbour as ourselves; or the office of the law, which consists in directing what to do, and what to leave undone; or the external actions which the law prescribes. Written in their hearts; this seems to be a covenant promise and privilege, Jeremiah 31:33 ; how then is it predicated of the Gentiles? Answer. Jereramiah speaks there of a special and supernatural inscription or writing in the heart by grace; and the apostle here, of that which is common and natural. Their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; interchangeably, now one way, anon another. Not as though the thoughts did, at the same time, strive together about the same fact; nor is it meant of divers men, as if good men were excused, and bad men accused, by their own thoughts; but in the same persons there were accusing or excusing thoughts and consciences, as their actions were evil or good.

(15) Which. —Rather, Inasmuch as they. The work of the law.—The practical effect or realisation of the law—written in their hearts as the original Law was written upon the tables of stone, (Comp. Jeremiah 31:33; 2Corinthians 3:3.) Also bearing witness.—Or, witnessing with them, as margin. There is a double witness; their actions speak for them externally, and conscience speaks for them internally. The mean while.—Rather, literally, as margin, between themselves—i.e., with mutual interchange, the thoughts of the heart or different motions of conscience sometimes taking the part of advocate, sometimes of accuser. This seems, on the whole, the best way of taking these two words, though some commentators (among them Meyer) regard this quasi personification of “the thoughts” as too strong a figure of speech, and take “between themselves” as referring to the mutual intercourse of man with man. But in that mutual intercourse it is not the thoughts that accuse or defend, but the tongue. The Apostle is speaking strictly of the private tribunal of conscience.

Romans 2:15 . οἵτινες ἑνδείκνυνται : the relative is qualitative: “inasmuch as they shew”. τὸ ἔργον τοῦ νόμου is the work which the law prescribes, collectively. “Written on their hearts,” when contrasted with the law written on the tables of stone, is equal to “unwritten”; the Apostle refers to what the Greeks called ἄγραφος νόμος . To the Greeks, however, this was something greater and more sacred than any statute, or civil constitution; to the Apostle it was less than the great revelation of God’s will, which had been made and interpreted to Israel, but nevertheless a true moral authority. There is a triple proof that Gentiles, who are regarded as not having law, are a law to themselves. (1) The appeal to their conduct: as interpreted by the Apostle, their conduct evinces, at least in some, the possession of a law written on the heart; (2) the action of conscience: it joins its testimony, though it be only an inward one, to the outward testimony borne by their conduct; and (3) their thoughts. Their thoughts bear witness to the existence of a law in them, inasmuch as in their mutual intercourse ( μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων ) these thoughts are busy bringing accusations, or in rarer cases ( ἢ καί ) putting forward defences, i.e. , in any case, exercising moral functions which imply the recognition of a law. This seems to me the only simple and natural explanation of a rather perplexed phrase.

We need not ask for what Paul does not give, the object to κατηγορούντων or ἀπολογουμένων : it may be any person, act or situation, which calls into exercise that power of moral judgment which shows that the Gentiles, though without the law of Moses, are not in a condition which makes it impossible to judge them according to their works. The construction in Romans 9:1 suggests that the συν views the witness of conscience, reflecting on conduct, as something added to the first instinctive consciousness of the nature of an action. συνείδησις does not occur in the Gospels except in John 8:9 ; twice only in Acts 23:1 ; Acts 24:16 , both times in speeches of St. Paul; twenty times in the Pauline epistles. It occurs in the O.T. only in Ecclesiastes 10:20 (curse not the King, ἐν συνειδήσει σου = ne in cogitatione quidem tua): the ordinary sense is found, for the first time in Biblical Greek, in Sap. 17:11. It is a quasi-philosophical word, much used by the Stoics, and belonging rather to the Greek than the Hebrew inheritance of Paul.

Romans 2:15 . Ἐνδείκνυνται , they show ) [demonstrate] to themselves, to others, and, in some respects, to God Himself.— τὸ ἔργον τοῦ νόμου , the work of the law ), the law itself, with its practical [active] operation. It is opposed to the letter, which is but an accident [not its essence].— γραπτὸν , written ), a noun, not a participle, much less an infinitive [ to be written ]. Paul, by way of contrast, alludes to the tables of Moses. This writing is antecedent to the doing of those things, which are contained in the law; but afterwards, when any one has done, or (has not done) the things commanded, [ the demonstration, or ] the showing [of the work of the law] follows, and that permanent writing [viz., that on the heart] becomes more clearly apparent— συμμαρτυρούσης , simultaneously bearing witness ) An allegory; the prosecution, the criminal, the witnesses are in court; conscience is a witness; the thoughts accuse, or also defend. Nature, and sin itself, bear witness : conscience bears witness along with them .— αὐτῶν ) of themselves , or their own .— τῆς συνειδήσεως , the conscience ) The soul has none of its faculties less under its own control, than conscience. So συνείδησις and λογισμός are joined, Wis 17:11-12 .— μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων , between one another ) as prosecutor and criminal.

This expression is put at the beginning of the clause for the sake of emphasis, inasmuch as thoughts implicated in the trial with thoughts , are opposed to conscience referred to the law .— τῶν λογισμῶν κατηγορούντων , their thoughts accusing ) Some explain [analyse] the words thus: the thoughts, which accuse, testifying simultaneously [taken from συμμαρτυρούσης ]; but thoughts accusing [ τῶν λογισμῶν κατηγορούντων ] is an expression, which stands by itself.— ἤ καὶ , or even ) The concessive particle, even , shows that the thoughts have far more to accuse, than defend, and the defence itself (comp. 2 Corinthians 7:11 , defending or clearing of yourselves ) does not extend to the whole, but only to a part of the conduct, and this very part in turn proves us to be debtors as to the whole, Romans 1:20 .— ἀπολογουμένων , [excusing] defending ). We have an example at Genesis 20:4 . Romans 2:15

15 . which shew ] The relative pronoun is the same as in Romans 1:25 , where see note. It marks a condition: “they are a law to themselves, inasmuch as, &c .” shew the work of the law written in their hearts ] “ The work of the law” has been explained as if collective for “ works; ” but this is ill-supported by real parallels. It is better to explain it as “what the law does,” than as “what is done for the law’s sake;” and thus it means the teaching of the Difference of right and wrong (see Romans 3:20 ). This “work,” done in an intense degree by the law, is done in a lower degree by conscience alone; but the work is the same in kind. The sense of wrong and right, which it is the law’s work to produce fully, is somehow and in some measure, without the law, “ written ” in heathen “ hearts .” (On the word heart see note to Romans 1:21 .)—“They shew: ”—this word may of course refer to subjective discovery; each man shewing it to himself, finding it in his experience. But it better suits the word to take it of mutual manifestations: language and conduct, in heathen communities, shewing the objective reality of the convictions which individuals are aware of.—“ Written: ”—for this metaphor, no doubt suggested by the tablets of Sinai, cp. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 . their conscience also bearing witness ] Lit. bearing witness with, bearing concurrent witness. What is the concurrence? It may be “of conscience with itself,” in its different verdicts.