Self-deception is a very real danger! When religious people think they’re safe from judgment, they’re often in the greatest danger.

Paul writes in Romans 2:1-11:

“Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or 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? But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his deeds: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.”

Verses one through four demonstrate the central principle that the religious do not fool God.

Hard Hearts Lead to Self-Deception

Paul begins in verse one: “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”

The first principle is clear: hard hearts lead to self-deception. Paul exposes the hypocrisy and self-deception at work among the religious elite.

Paul declares that everyone is without excuse. The Jews believed they belonged to a different category. They represent the religious, self-righteous individuals of our day who have grown up in “Christian” culture. They were saved, their parents were Christians, and they had attended church from childhood throughout their upbringing.

Paul emphasizes that everyone is without excuse, and everyone condemns themselves. Before the holy gaze of a righteous God who knows and sees everything, those who pass judgment on the Gentiles lack moral authority because they practice the very same things. In essence, they pass judgment upon themselves.

Recent months have brought numerous scandals involving pastors in Zambia who stand before congregations to declare God’s word, only to be discovered sleeping with the wives of men in their own congregations. These scandals occur regularly across our land.

Our culture seems structured so that everyone holds compromising information about others, creating an unholy tension that holds the entire system together through mutual blackmail.

This Self-Deception Is Illustrated By King David

In 2 Samuel, after David sinned with Bathsheba and covered it up, everything seemed to be going well. One day in 2 Samuel chapter 12, verse 5, Nathan the prophet came into the court of David and told him a story, asking him to make a judgment.

A rich man had received visitors. Instead of slaughtering one of his own sheep to feed his guests, he went to the poor neighbor next door who only had one little lamb. The neighbor cared for that lamb and nurtured it.

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