What Does Romans 2:3 Mean?
Do you reckon this, O human, you who judge those who practice such things and do them, that you will flee out from the judgment of God?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?THE KEY
The Greek links the act of judging others to the judgment you cannot assume you will escape.
THE MEANING
You can recognize and condemn another person’s conduct while doing the same things yourself. The measure you apply to them also reaches your own conduct; no one stands outside God’s judgment by judging others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that condemning someone else’s wrongdoing makes you exempt from judgment for the same conduct.
THE ROOT
κρίμα
krima
GROWS FROM
κριν- (krin-, the shared stem of κρίνω, krinō)
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
“judgment of God” in this verse is krima. The Greek word for “judgment” shares its root with the verb translated “judgest.” English makes the act and its verdict look separate, while the Greek joins them: the one who judges others cannot assume exemption from judgment.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: To judge or decide.
κρίνω
This is the verb behind “judgest,” linking the reader’s act of judging to the judgment named in the verse.
krisis: Judgment or a decision.
κρίσις
It carries the same root into the act or process of judging, keeping the judge and the judgment within one word family.
kritēs: A judge.
κριτής
It names the one who judges, completing the root’s connection between the person, the action, and the verdict.
THE PATTERN
What a person sets in motion against another can return upon that person.
Whoever digs a pit falls into it; whoever rolls a stone, it turns back upon him.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.For judgment will be without faithful love for the one who did not show such love, and faithful love boasts over judgment.THE THREAD
Therefore you have no word to answer with, O human, whoever you are who judges others, for in whatever you judge in another you press the sentence down upon yourself, for you who judge practice the very same things.Romans 2:1 uses the same Greek word family for judging and makes the consequence explicit: judging another while doing the same condemns the judge. Verse 3 presses the same point into the question of whether that person can escape God’s judgment.
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