Romans 2:13-26

¹³It is right for them to be punished { God to punish them} because it is not those who merely know God's laws whom he considers to be righteous. On the contrary, it is only those who continually have obeyed all ◄of God's laws/of the laws that God gave to Moses► ◄whom God will consider righteous/whose record of sins God will erase►.

¹⁴Whenever the non-Jews, who do not have the laws God gave to Moses, naturally obey those laws, they prove that they have a law within their own minds, even though they do not have the laws God gave to Moses.

¹⁵They show that they know in their own minds what God commands in his laws MET, as each person in his very own conscience either accuses or excuses/defends himself concerning his own behavior.

¹⁶God will punish people at the time when he will judge them according to what they have thought and done. He will judge them even for the things that they have done secretly. He will judge people by authorizing Christ Jesus to judge them. This is what I tell people when I preach the gospel to them.

¹⁷Now I have something to say to any one of you Jews to whom I am writing: You (sg) boast about yourself saying, “I am a Jew.” You (sg) trust that God will save you because you possess the laws that he gave to Moses. You boast that you belong to God.

¹⁸You know what God desires. Because you have been taught { people have taught you} God's laws, you are able to know which things are right and to choose to do them.

¹⁹You are certain that you are able to show God's truth to non-Jews, as guides show the road to those who are blind MET. You are certain that by what you say you can show God's way to the non-Jews who do not understand it, as a light shows the way to those who walk in the darkness MET, DOU.

²⁰You are certain that you can instruct/correct non-Jews, whom you consider foolish because of their not understanding God's message. Because you have in God's laws a written expression of true knowledge HEN, you are certain that you can teach people who, being like children, do not know God's truth MET.

²¹Since you claim that you have all these advantages because you are a Jew, ◄it is disgusting that you who teach other people that they should obey the laws God gave Moses do not obey the laws that you yourself teach!/why is it that you who teach other people that they should obey the laws God gave Moses do not obey the laws that you yourself teach?► RHQ You who preach that people should not steal things, it is disgusting that you yourself steal things! RHQ

²²You who command people not to have sexual relations with someone to whom they are not married, it is disgusting that you commit adultery yourself! RHQ You who detest idols, it is disgusting that you rob temples where people worship idols! RHQ

²³You who boast saying, “ I have God's laws,” it is disgusting that you disobey those same laws! RHQ As a result you are insulting God!

²⁴You must not be like our ancestors, about whom were written these words in the Scriptures: “The non-Jews speak evil about God because of the evil actions of many of you Jews.” The non-Jews say God must be a hypocrite if he condones the behavior of people like you.

²⁵Any one of you who is circumcised to show that he belongs to God can benefit from that if he obeys the laws God gave to Moses. But if you (sg), a circumcised person, disobey God's laws, God will consider that you who are circumcised are no better in God's sight than someone who is not circumcised.

²⁶This means that God will certainly consider that even non-Jews who are not circumcised can become his people if they obey the things that he commanded in his laws. RHQ