Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

In this passage, a “Jew” is someone who wrongly thinks they believe in, follow, and accept God. These people are totally confident, seeing themselves as guides to the blind. “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.” Paul is talking about a religious spirit—preaching things you don’t practice. This is the third religious trap—preaching, not practicing, and it always happens.

There are three levels of judgment before God: -What your conscience said

-What Scripture said

-What you said

When we command things of people that we won’t do, that makes us a hypocrite. Hypocrite is an ancient Greek word taken from drama (theater). An actor playing multiple roles during a play would wear different masks to portray different characters. The audience never saw who the actor truly was, thus making the actor a “hypocrite.” Are you a different person with your Christian family than your non-Christian friends? If so, that’s hypocrisy. Let’s be honest—we all have varying degrees of hypocrisy. God’s Word is a mirror to examine ourselves and uncover our hypocrisy.

We all have this religious spirit within us. “If we’re the good people, then they’re the bad people. If they just did what we said, the world would be better.” But the truth is, if we did what we were supposed to do, then we would be accountable in the sight of God. Others need to do what they’re supposed to do because they are accountable in the sight of God (not in our sight).

When religious people show up, they first say, “I want to be a leader. I know what to do.” These people walk into your life and start bossing you around and telling you what to do. Confident, self-assured, pushy, and demanding, their motto is “Law for you, grace for me.”

A pastor friend has a great analogy with which people seem to connect. He says that religious people tend to use the Bible as binoculars instead of a mirror. When you use the Bible as binoculars, you look far away from yourself and instead focus intently on the details of other people so you can find their faults, flaws, and failures to criticize and judge them while ignoring yourself.

The result is that you preach to others things you do not practice for yourself. This is the third religious trap Paul addresses—preaching, not practicing. The results are threefold. One, you become a hypocrite. Two, you brag about your superiority to others, which is the sin of pride and often simply untrue. Three, you think you should lead and teach others even though you are blind and have no idea where you are going. These people love to push their way into leadership in churches and ministries.

When you use the Bible as a mirror for yourself, you start to see your own problems, pains, and perils, and you don’t pay much attention to other people. This allows you to see the places where you need to repent and make changes, have God forgive you, and ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to live differently. You spend far more energy dealing with your own sin than worrying about what everyone else is doing. You live a life of grace for yourself and grace for others because you realize we are all sinners in need of the Savior. The result is humility and a culture where we are invited to be honest about our struggles and get the help we need to become the people God intends for us to be.

Today’s Reflection

Are you using binoculars to watch others or a mirror to examine yourself?