Romans 2:20

the foolish the thoughtless. Same word as Luke 11:40; 1 Corinthians 15:36; Ephesians 5:17, &c.

hast the form, &c. Read, having in the law the form of knowledge and of truth. "The form:" same word as 2 Timothy 3:5, where certainly it means outward formas separate from inward life. Here the same meaning is present, but not as the only or chief one. The Greek word (not found in the classics) strictly means "shaping," "moulding;" but this must not be pressed: it may well mean, practically, the result of shaping i.e. form. And certainly in the derivation of the word there is no necessary idea of unreality;rather the opposite. The natural reference here is to the divinely-drawn outline and scheme, the delineation, of spiritual "knowledge and truth" in the Old Testament. But beneath the word, in this context, inevitably lies the thought that this delineation is (in the self-righteous Jew's use of it) taken apart from life and love.