Understand Christianity

 1. God has condemned the heathen. 1:18-32

 2. God has condemned the moralist. 2:1-16

 3. Now God condemns the religious person. 2:17-3:8

1. Spiritual advantage: (17-18)  (C1st condition- superior to Gentiles)

 Paul list 8 moral and religious details in which the Jews considered 

a. God has given us his law.

 b. God has entered into a special relationship with us.

 c. Because we have his law, we know his will.

 d. We approve only the most excellent of moral standards.

 2. Privileges: (19-20)

 a. We are a guide for the blind,

 b. We are a light for those who are in the dark.

 c. We are instructors for the foolish.

 d. We are teachers of infants.

 3. Three examples: (21-24)

 a. The eighth commandment

 b. The seventh commandment

 c. The first and second commandments

(Isa 52:5 – their hypocrisy caused Gentiles to blaspheme God. Why should Gentiles honor God when His Chosen People do not?)

1. The condition of one who has the sign but fails to keep the law

 2. The condition of one who without the sign keeps the law

 3. The essence of being a real Jew (religious)

Reflection: To be truly religious means to seek praise from God alone.

This passage must have come as a real shock to the Jew.  After all, were they not God’s chosen people?  Were they not descendants of Abraham?  Did God not lead them through the wilderness and perform miracles for their good. Did God not show His special favor for them throughout the OT?  Did God not promise them that the promised Messiah would come from the line of Abraham?  Did God not provide the gospel (good news) to the Jew first and later to the Greek?  History affirms that we can respond to each of these questions with a resounding “YES!”  

But what was and is so shocking to the Jew is Paul’s distinction between an ethnic Jew and a real Jew (spiritual Jew).  He declares that race and a certain mark on the male body is not what God values.  Rather, it is the character of the person.  It is the heart of the individual.  The essence of “being a real Jew is not a matter of pedigree but of character.”  And what made the Jew even more offended is Paul’s declaration that one who is not an ethnic Jew may be more of a real Jew than one who is racially a Jew.  Further than that, Paul says that many ethnic Jews bring discredit to their race because of their poor conduct.  So it is most understandable as to why these Jews are among the most unpopular people in the world.  

Barclary offers this description of how non-Jews (Gentiles) viewed Jews in the first century.  “They regarded Judaism as a ‘barbarous superstition’ and the Jews as ‘the most disgusting of races’, and as a most contemptible company of slaves.  The origins of Jewish religion were twisted with a malicious ignorance.  It was said that Jews had originally been a company of lepers who had been sent by the king of Egypt to work in the sand quarries; and that Moses had rallied this band of leprous slaves and led them through the desert to Palestine.  It was said that they worshiped an ass’s head because in the wilderness a heard of wild asses had led them to water when they were perishing with thirst.  It was said that they abstained from swine’s flesh because the pig is specially liable to a skin disease called the itch, and it was that skin disease that the Jews had suffered from in Egypt.  

 Certain of the Jewish customs were mocked at by the Gentiles.  Their abstinence from swine’s flesh provided many a jest.  Plutarch thought that the reason for it might well be that the Jews worshiped the pig as a god.  Juvenal declares that Jewish clemency has accorded the pig the privilege to a good old age, and that swine’s flesh is more valuable to them than the flesh of man.  The custom of observing the Sabbath was regarded as pure laziness.”      

And as if that was not enough, the Roman government gave certain privileges to the Jews that further infuriated the Gentiles.  

1. Instead of paying the required temple tax to the normal authorities, the Jews were permitted to transfer their temple tax to Jerusalem.   

2.  When the Jews had legal issues to deal with, most of time they were permitted to handle the matters according to their own laws and not in civil courts.  (Why should these people be granted such privileges?)

3. Rome respected the Jewish observance of the Sabbath.  Consequently, Jews were exempted from civil duties on the Sabbath AND did not have to serve in the military.  

Such privileges and exemptions brought accusations against the Jews.  They were accused of being atheists!  Their God could not be seen with human eyes like the Greek gods.  There were no images of God, no temples in which they worshiped.  All of this brought further contempt for the Jew and for the God they were said to worship.  Because of their separateness they were accused of hating everyone who was not a Jew.  The story was circulated in Alexandria that Jews had taken an oath never to show kindness to a Gentile and even offered a Greek as sacrifice to their God once a year.  If a Jew were asked for directions, he would give it only to another Jew.  If one were looking for a well from which to drink, the Jew would not tell him unless he was circumcised.  

It is true though that many a Jew placed more emphasis on externals than on what was in the heart.  Their actions and attitudes brought disrepute to Almighty God.  And this is what led the Apostle Paul to say that the Jews were as guilty as the Gentiles before God.  

It doesn’t take much imagination to substitute the word Christian for the word Jew to see that the same truths apply.  Some Christians, liberal and conservative, are convinced of their relationship with God and a place is secured for them in heaven because they are a member of a church and have been baptized.  Being a member of a church and being baptized NEVER secured a place in heaven for anyone.  That is not to say that being a member of a church and being baptized are not important.  They have their place even today.  However, if their church membership and their baptism do not represent a genuine change of heart and genuine faith in Christ alone, then these are empty symbols.  In fact, they can bring disrepute to God and His church if such a person does not live in such a way as to demonstrate that he/she is a changed person.

(Ill.) “I’d come to church, but there are too many hypocrites there.”

A pastor responded to this criticism by shocking the person when he said, “It is true there are too many hypocrites in the church, but why don’t you come.  We always have room for one more!”

BUT ! When a genuine Christian does live a consistent life, he/she will still be unjustly criticized.  Yet, that is what God has called us to do.  

(Ill.) Player of the year played golf with Jack Nicholas, the President of the United States, and Billy Graham.  

Even when a Christian lives a consistent life, it does not mean he/she is immune from unjust criticism.  Remember Jesus said, 

ESV  John 15:18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  

(Read James 1:2-8)

ESV  James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 

The essence of being a real Jew is one who has been transformed inwardly.

It is a circumcision of the heart.