When you judge others do you also judge yourself?

My pastor is working his way through Paul's letter to the Romans during Sunday morning worship, and I walk away each week incredibly challenged. Last week he preached on Romans 2:1-3 and I found myself convicted and knew by the end of the sermon that the Apostle's problem with the Jews was one that I sometimes do myself. Here is the text:

^"1Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. ²And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. ³But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?" (NASB).

What exactly were the Jews guilty of? Judging non-Jews for sinning. Is this wrong? Well, not necessarily. It is good for a person to be able to discern right from wrong according to God's holy standard of living. What then were the Jews guilty of? Their sin was hypocrisy. While judging the Gentiles for their sins they themselves were doing the very same things! Isn't it easy to quickly pass judgment on another person? Your co-worker, your friend, your fellow brother or sister in the faith.

Funny that when you yourself commit the very same sin ... weeeeell you have a good excuse for doing it. There are reasons for why you did what you did and that makes it not as bad for you. Or so the excusing might go in your mind. But in reality, there is no excuse for the one who breaks God's law. The Lord of heaven and earth cares very much about His creatures obeying His commands.

In the case of the Jews, I believe they would face a harsher judgment of God because of the immense amount of light they received from the Old Testament Law and prophets. Now in my case, and your case (if you are one who has heard the truth), we have even less excuse than those around us who don't profess to be Christians and go to a gospel-believing church every Sunday. More light has been given to us and therefore we are expected to live in that light.

Thanks for reading,
Rusty