Romans 2:1-9: a reflection

1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. 2We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God, 6who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” 7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; 8but to those who are self-seeking and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation, 9oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Paul asks a piercing question of anyone inclined to presume on God's patience: Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? God's patience with our sin, his forbearance in not immediately judging, is easy to misread. Some take it as indifference, or as permission, or as a sign that their sin does not matter. Paul says it means something else entirely: God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, not to be presumed upon.

Notice the danger Paul names: mistaking God's patience for license. Because God does not immediately judge our sin, because his kindness and forbearance give us time, we can wrongly conclude that our sin is not serious, that we can go on as we are, that God does not mind. Paul warns that this is to despise the riches of his goodness, to misread as permission what is actually an invitation. God's patience is a space for repentance, not a license to keep sinning.

That is a searching word about how we respond to God's patience with us. When God is kind and forbearing, when the consequences of our sin do not fall at once, we can drift into presuming on that kindness, taking it as tacit approval. But God's patience has a purpose: it is meant to draw us to repentance, to give us time to turn. Do not misread God's kindness. His forbearance is not indifference to your sin but an invitation to turn from it. Let his patience lead you where it is meant to lead you, to repentance, not to a deeper presumption that his kindness will always excuse what you will not give up.

Lord, Paul asks whether I presume on the riches of your kindness and patience, not knowing that your kindness is meant to lead me to repentance. Guard me from misreading your patience. When you are kind and forbearing, when the consequences of my sin do not fall at once, keep me from taking that as permission, as a sign my sin does not matter, as license to go on as I am. Help me see your patience for what it is: not indifference, but an invitation to turn. Let your kindness lead me where it is meant to lead me, to repentance. Thank you for your forbearance; help me not to despise it, but to be drawn by it back to you.