NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER TWO (Part XXI)

Pelagius, an early church scholar and contemporary of Augustine has this to say: “Paul says to the Jew: If you rely on the Law, why do you not obey it? If you glory in God, why do you dishonor Him? If you know His will, why do you not do it? If you approve what is excellent, why do you go after what is harmful? Why do you not look for the right way, if you are a guide for the blind? Surely if you saw it, you would walk in it! If you are a light for others, why do you not cast off the works of darkness? As an instructor of the foolish, why have you abandoned the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom?¹ We could ask Christians the same thing today in a similar manner: If you believe the Bible is the Word of God, why do you not obey it? All the questions Pelagius has Paul asking the Romans apply to us who claim to be God’s children, the salt, and light of the world.

Pelagius continues: “As a teacher of children, why are you a child in understanding? If you have the standard of knowledge and truth in the law, why do you not follow it yourself, nor by your evil example allow others to follow it? Why does your life not match your teaching, and why does your behavior make a mockery of your faith? Because you have not kept the law it will happen that not only will the law do you no good, it will condemn you for the greater crime of holding it in contempt.”² There was a time when Christians were easily identified because of the modest way they dress, the way they acted, the language they used, and their courteous manner. But today it is hard to spot a Christian in the crowd because they have adopted the styles, language, and customs of the world.

Reformist John Calvin saw the same problem in his day and has this to say about Paul’s admonition: “This reproof was suitable to the Jews in olden times, who, relying on the mere knowledge of the law, lived in no way better than if they had no law; so we must take heed, lest it should be turned against us in this day: and indeed it may be well applied to many, who, boasting of some extraordinary knowledge of the gospel, abandon themselves to every kind of uncleanness, as though the gospel were not a rule of life. That we may not then so heedlessly play around with the Lord, let us remember what sort of judgment is coming for such gibberish, who make a show of God’s word by mere talkativeness.”³ We can certainly agree that what Calvin applied to his era in the 1500’s can indeed be reapplied today as a warning to all who leave their Bibles to gather dust on bookshelves or use them for decoration.

John Bengel uses an appropriate word here to describe what Paul is exposing that is not part of most English-speaking people’s vocabulary, He calls it a “metonymy.” This specifies substituting the name of one thing for the name of something else with which it is figuratively associated. For instance, when a man says to his wife: “You are my sunshine.” She is not literally sunshine, but in his mind, he associates her with the light the sun brings to brighten a day. Another is: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Pictures are not words, but they convey a meaning that is often described by words. So Bengel says that Paul is using a metonymy by telling certain Jews in the church at Rome that they teach others but do not teach themselves.⁴ Let us hope and pray that the same cannot be said of us who call ourselves believers when we know not what we believe.

H. A. Ironside says that what Paul says here is the first of four statements designed to drive home the truth of the actual state of those who are pretenders trying to lead those who know little into something they do not know themselves. Ironside says: “[These are] four questions calculated to expose the inmost secrets of their hearts and to lay bare the hidden sins of their lives.” It is a punch against their self-confidence that allows them to feel confident enough try and teach others a subject on how to follow instructions of the Law that they do not follow. In this first statement, Paul strikes out by saying they try to teach others but fail to teach themselves, and in the second he accuses them of teaching against stealing while susceptible to stealing if given the opportunity.⁵

Charles Hodge offers his commentary on this conflict of teaching one thing while saying another. He writes: “To set ourselves up as instructors, and yet not to apply our principles to ourselves, is not only an inconsistency but offensive arrogance and hypocrisy. To steal and to commit adultery are great sins, but for those who preach against them and condemn them in others, to commit them, is to quadruple their guilt. The Jews, therefore, who committed the sins which they so loudly condemned in the heathen, were more guilty in the sight of God than the heathen themselves. While flattering themselves that they were secure from the divine wrath, in the enclosure of the theocracy, they were the special objects of God’s displeasure; so that publicans and harlots were nearer to the kingdom of God than they.”⁶

Verse 22: You say they must not commit adultery, but are you susceptible to committing the same sin? You say you hate idols, but do you ever hesitate before plundering their temples?

Paul continues this self-examination test for those of Jewish heritage who were leaders in the congregation in Rome. It sounds familiar to one of Asaph’s Psalms, where the composer hears God speaking to those who disregard His instructions, and so He tells them: “Who gave you the right to quote my laws or discuss my agreement, when you hate for Me to tell you what to do, and ignore what I say? You see a thief and run to join him. You jump into bed with those who commit adultery. You say evil things and tell lies. You sit around gossiping about people, finding fault with your own brothers.”⁷ This sounds very much like what Paul is saying here to some of the Roman believers who claim to be leaders and teachers.

What Paul states here echoes what is said to the leaders of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah: “Will you steal and murder? Will you commit adultery? Will you falsely accuse other people? Will you worship the false god Baal and follow other gods that you have not known?”⁸ And I would dare say that what bothered God about such disrespect and loose-living, also impacted Paul the same way. God said to them: “If you commit these sins, do you think that you can stand before me in this house that is called by my name? Do you think you can stand before me and say, ‘We are safe,’ just so you can keep doing all these terrible things?”⁹ It is interesting to note that these statements in Jeremiah come just before the portion Jesus quoted when He overturned the merchant’s tables in the Temple.¹⁰

It should also be pointed out that among the Jews, and certainly in their writings, adultery was often referred to when people turned to other gods and were not faithful to the One who redeemed and rescued them from Egyptian slavery. The Apostle James uses it in that sense when writing to the churches: “You people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving what the world has is the same as hating God. So anyone who wants to be friends with this evil world becomes God’s enemy. Do you think the Scriptures mean nothing? The Scriptures say, ‘The Spirit God made to live in us wants us only for Himself.”¹¹ It would not be too out of line to consider this in light of what Paul has to say next about pilfering items from idol temples.

According to historians, after being dispersed from the Holy Land, some Jews actually made a self-righteous business venture out of looting pagan temples and selling the idols, or the precious metals of which they were made, for profit. This was a direct violation of their law where it says: “You must throw the statues of their gods into the fire and burn them. You must not want to keep the silver or the gold that is on those statues for yourselves. It will be a trap to you—it will ruin your life. The Lord, your God, hates those idols.”¹²

Not only was this a violation of Old Testament law, but it was also a violation of Roman law. Paul uses the Greek word, “hierosuleo” here in this verse because robbing pagan temples was one of the more blatant contemporary examples of Jewish hypocrisy, and would be a cause of blasphemy of the name of Adonai among the Gentiles.¹³ Jewish historian Josephus¹⁴ and Jewish philosopher Philo¹⁵ both say that hierosuleo, robbery of temples, (also called “sacrilege”) was a crime on a par with treason and murder in the Roman world, punishable by death. There was also a Roman law against stealing sacred books and monies from the Jewish Temple, promulgated by Caesar Augustus. But since Paul refers to temples in the plural, and has “abhor idols” as the antithesis, it is highly doubtful that Paul is asking Jews if they rob their own Temple.

Various early church scholars see Paul’s vetting of these Jewish church leaders as still valid even for their day. Origen said: “These words could equally well be applied to the heretics who call themselves Christians.… Since they rob the Word of God of its true meaning and seduce the minds of their hearers by their perverse interpretation, joining an adulterated kind of faith to the bride of Christ which is the church, this [verse] fits them exactly.”¹⁶

Also, in the writings of Ambrosiaster, we find this: “The Jew adulterates the law by removing the truth of Christ from it and putting lies in its place. In another of his epistles, Paul writes: ‘They are adulterers of God’s Word.’¹⁷ A man is sacrilegious when he denies Christ, whom the law and the prophets call God.¹⁸ Did the Jews ever say, ‘You are God, and we did not know it’¹⁹ of God the Father when the entire law proclaims the authority of God the Father, by whom all things are made? But when the Son of God appeared, what He was was hidden and not revealed until after the resurrection. It was then that it was said of Him: ‘You are God and we did not know it.’”²⁰ Then Pelagius offers his view: “There is not just one kind of adultery, for you commit adultery if you give anyone other than God what the soul owes exclusively to Him.”²¹ And Chrysostom adds the following: “It was strictly forbidden for Jews to touch any of the treasures deposited in pagan temples because they would be defiled. But Paul claims here that the tyranny of greed has persuaded them to disregard the law at this point.”²²