Romans 2.22-Paul's Third and Fourth Rhetorical Questions that Expose Jewish Hypocrisy
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 9, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:22-Paul’s Third and Fourth Rhetorical Questions that Expose Jewish Hypocrisy
Lesson # 62
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:17.
This morning we will continue to study the twelfth and final principle of divine judgment, which is contained in Romans 2:17-29, namely, that God judges according to reality and without regard of racial background or religious profession.
The Jews erroneously, presumptuously and arrogantly thought that they would enter the kingdom of heaven because of their racial background as Jews and circumcision as well as being the custodians of the Law.
In Romans 2:17-29, Paul destroys their false security, which was based upon six privileges God had given to them, which did not produce obedience in the Jews but rather arrogance towards their relationship with the Gentiles.
In Romans 2:17-18, Paul lists six privileges that God gave the Jews and then in Romans 2:19-20, he lists four pretensions of the Jews meaning they claimed a particular dignity, importance or merit.
In Romans 2:20c, Paul teaches that this arrogance is based upon “having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.”
In Romans 2:21, Paul posed two rhetorical questions to the unsaved Jew, which expose their hypocrisy.
This morning we will study Romans 2:22, in which Paul poses a third and fourth rhetorical question, which exposes their hypocrisy.
Romans 2:17-22, “But if you bear the name ‘Jew’ and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”
“You who say that” is the verb lego (levgw), which means, “to command” since the substance of the Jews’ teaching is in the form of a command, “don’t commit adultery.”
“One should not commit adultery” is the verb moicheuo (moixeuvw) (moy-khyoo-o), which refers to “sexual intercourse of a man with a married woman other than his own spouse,” and whose meaning is negated by the negative particle me, “not.”
Marriage was established by God in the Garden of Eden when He brought the Woman to Adam to be his helpmate (See Genesis 2:18-25) thus, committing adultery is sin against God because it violates the divine institution of marriage.
The Word of God prohibits adultery.
Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.”
Adultery begins in the heart.
Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Committing adultery is a manifestation of not loving your neighbor as yourself.
Romans 13:8-10, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
The Lord Jesus Christ taught if you look lustfully at another man’s wife, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.
Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’ but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Both the Old and New Testament Scriptures condemn adultery (See Proverbs 1:10; 6:20-35; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Adultery was a problem throughout Israel’s history (Jeremiah 7:9-11; 9:1-6; Ezekiel 22:1-16).
In the first century, the Jews were divorcing their women without legitimate Biblical reasons and were thus committing adultery.
There are three legitimate grounds for divorce: (1) Failure to be faithful to the marriage partner (Deuteronomy 24:1-5) (2) Failure to provide emotional support in the form of sex (Exodus 21:10-11) (3) Failure to provided material support (Exodus 21:10-11).
Therefore, adultery was grounds for divorce since it was the failure to be faithful to the marriage contract.
Many Jewish men tried to circumvent the Mosaic Law command against adultery by divorcing their wives and marrying another woman to whom they were attracted.
This practice of divorcing their wives for simply any reason came about because of misinterpreting the meaning of the phrase “indecency” in Deuteronomy 24:1-5.
Deuteronomy 24:1-5, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance. When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.”
In first century Israel, there were two schools of interpretation concerning Deuteronomy 24:1.
There was the “Shammai” school, which was conservative in that they took the word “indecency” literally referring to some form of sexual immorality such as adultery.
The second was the “Hillel” school, which was liberal in that they took the word “indecency” and added to it, saying that the word meant “any indecency at all,” thus teaching that a Jewish man could divorce his wife for anything that he didn’t like about her such as she burned the bacon at breakfast.
The Lord Jesus condemned this practice of divorcing without a legitimate reason.
Matthew 19:1-12, “When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?’ And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE’ and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY? He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.’ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. The disciples said to Him, ‘If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.’ But He said to them, ‘Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given.’ For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”
The directive will of God is that marriage was originally designed to be a life long commitment (Gen. 2:24; Matthew 19:5-6), but the permissive will of God has permitted divorce because of the fallen nature of man and negative volition to the Word of God on the part of one or both partners (Matt. 19:7-8).
The “certificate of divorce” enabled the divorcees to remarry.
The victim of adultery has two legitimate choices, forgiveness or divorce.
Romans 2:22, “You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”
“Do you commit adultery?” is Paul’s third rhetorical question that he poses to his unsaved Jewish audience, which demands a positive response and exposes their hypocrisy indicating that they did commit adultery and did not practice what they taught the unsaved Gentiles.
“You who abhor idols” refers to the attitude of the Jews during the Greek and Roman occupations after their return from Babylon, towards anything that resembled idolatry, to the extent that they would not handle Roman coins with Caesar’s image on it (Matthew 22:19-21).
Idolatry is the worship of something created as opposed to the worship of the Creator Himself.
Deuteronomy 32:17 and 1 Corinthians 10:20 teach that the worship of idols is connected to the worship of demons since the sacrificing to idols is in reality sacrificing to demons who promote the worship of idols.
Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.”
1 Corinthians 10:20, “No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.”
Israel was prohibited from practicing idolatry.
Leviticus 26:1, “You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.”
Idolatry originally meant the worship of idols, or the worship of false gods by means of idols, but came to mean among the Old Testament Hebrews any worship of false gods, whether by images or otherwise or the worship of the Lord through visible symbols (Hos 8:5-6; 10:5).
Ultimately in the New Testament idolatry came to mean, not only the giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion which belonged to God alone, but the giving to any human desire a precedence over God's will (1 Cor 10:14; Gal 5:20; Col 3:5; 1 Peter 4:3).
1 Corinthians 10:14, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”
Romans 2:22, “You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”
“Do you rob temples?” is Paul’s fourth rhetorical question that he poses to his unsaved Jewish audience, which demands a positive response and exposes their hypocrisy indicating that they did rob pagan temples for personal profit while at the same expressing an abhorrence of idolatry.
Some expositors teach that the robbing of temples should be taken in a figurative sense for the practice of many Jews who failed to pay the Temple tax (Malachi 3:8).
However, Paul’s reference to the abhorrence of idols indicates that the robbing of temples should be taken in a literal sense since after the Babylonian captivity and under the Roman occupation during the first century, the Jews did not worship idols.
Therefore, the verb hierosuleo refers to making personal gain from the idols, which they were prohibited from doing under the Mosaic Law.
Deuteronomy 7:25-26, “The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.”
This practice of the Jews in making a personal profit from pagan idols was practiced under the monarchies when Israel was conquering Gentile territories.
However, in the first century, the nation of Israel was subjugated to the Roman Empire and had long ceased conquering Gentile lands.
But many Jews did continue to plunder pagan temples rationalizing that doing such a thing was a blow to paganism and would please God and do Him a favor.
The Jews who robbed pagan temples for personal profit were distorting the second of the Ten Commandments recorded in Exodus 20:4-6.
The practice of the Jews robbing pagan temples is inferred in Acts 19:37.
Paul’s rhetorical question, “do you rob temples?” condemns this act of hypocrisy since Deuteronomy 7:25 prohibits such practices among the Jews.