Pointing the Finger

It’s easy to point the finger at others, but how do we fare when the finger’s pointed at us?

By the end of Romans 1 it’d be easy to point the finger at “them” outside – those idolatrous, immoral Gentiles. So in Romans 2:1-16 Paul begins to tighten the net around his readers – he turns the finger on “you” – to show that everyone has need of the gospel because everyone has sinned. He won’t let anyone wriggle out of this verdict.

His point here is that God’s judgement is impartial and universal: It’s completely fair for all people, based on their actions rather than their knowledge of the Jewish law. Merely knowing what’s right is not good enough, and not knowing the law is no excuse.

Apart from the gospel, every human being is left guilty before an angry God.

Let’s be humble as we remember where we’d be without Jesus, and let’s strive, in our evangelism, to dismantle the misguided confidence of the self-righteous.