Romans 2:4-16

⁴Or is it that you're treating his wonderful kindness, tolerance, and patience with contempt, not realizing that God in his kindness is trying to lead you to repent?

⁵Due to your hard-hearted attitude and your refusal to repent, you're making things far worse for yourself on the day of retribution when God's judgment is demonstrated to be absolutely right.

⁶God will make sure everyone receives what they deserve according to what they've done.

⁷Those who have kept on trying to do what is good and right will receive glory and honor, immortality and eternal life.

⁸But those who think only of themselves, rejecting the truth and deliberately choosing to do evil, will receive punishment and furious hostility.

⁹Everyone who does evil will have trouble and suffering—the Jewish people first, and the foreigners too.

¹⁰But everyone who does good will have glory, honor, and peace—the Jewish people first, and the foreigners too.

¹¹God has no favorites.

¹²Those who sin even though they don't have the written law are still lost, while those who sin that do have the written law will be condemned by that law.

¹³Just listening to what the law says doesn't make you right in God's sight. It's those who do what the law says who are made right.

¹⁴The foreigners don't have the written law, but when they instinctively do what it says, they are following the law even without having the written law.

¹⁵In this way they show how the law works that's written in their minds. As they think about what they're doing, their conscience either accuses them for doing wrong or defends them for doing what is good and right.

¹⁶The good news I share is that a day is coming when God will judge, through Jesus Christ, everyone's secret thoughts.