Romans 2:17-29

Now Paul accosts the Jew, reproving his pride of law, made void by disloyalty.

Romans 2:17. His pretensions (But if thou bearest the name of Jew, etc.), provoke the questions of Romans 2:21 : the commandments he inculcates on others, he so violates that God is dishonoured, and His name is blasphemed among the Gentiles. The blasphemy of Isaiah 52:5 was occasioned by the insolence of Gentile oppressors; this by the hypocrisy of Israel.

Romans 2:25. How worthless the outward possession of the Law, and the physical mark of circumcision, without the corresponding inner reality: law-keeping uncircumcision is virtually circumcision, and vice versa; heart-obedience, not external status, wins God's praise. For Jew or Gentile, doing right, not lauding nor vaunting it, avails with God at the Judgment (Romans 2:1) and approves itself now (Romans 2:17). The words of Romans 2:22 b, Thou that loathest the idols, etc., probably allude to some recent notorious sacrilege. [ Cf. the underlying insinuation in Acts 19:37. A. J. G.].

Romans 2:12 and Romans 2:25 exhibit Paul emancipated from Jewish prejudice; he penetrates through conventional forms to the moral realities. The first part of his indictment, bearing upon flagrant sin, terminated at Romans 1:32; its second part, bearing upon sin disguised by moral professions, occupies ch. 2.