Twin City church of Christ Blog
“July 17, 2024 - Teach Yourself First”
Categories: 2024 Reading DevotionalsTeach Yourself First
Reading: Romans 2:17-24
Paul continues to take aim at the deep hypocrisy of Jews who condescend to Gentiles while being guilty of the same sins. Paul speaks as an insider here who has witnessed (and probably experienced) the spirit he ridicules. “But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth”(Rom 2:17-20). Before Paul issues the rebuke, he details the superiority in Jewish thinking. Others are blind, in darkness, children, while they are guides, full of light and wisdom. While there is truth in their assessment of themselves, the arrogance seeps through.
Yet the deeper flaw is that the differences between teacher and student don’t really exist. “You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?”(Rom 2:21). Convinced of their racial, cultural, and religious superiority, they brush past the most important issue: do you do what you tell others they must do? Do you live by what you teach? Ironically, by praising the Law yet not keeping it, they dishonor the God they claim to serve. “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law”(Rom 2:23), even causing the Gentiles to blaspheme God’s name by their hypocrisy (Rom 2:24). Unbelievers may not be able to track with all our arguments or expose our logical errors, but they can smell hypocrisy.
These verses should make for uneasy reading for Christians. Whether we are Jewish or not, it is easy for us to adopt a condescending mindset because of what we know about the Bible and bypass applying it to ourselves. “You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?” The solution is to teach yourself first—to do the hard work of introspection, life change, and slow growth on ourselves before we purport to teach others.
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One Thing to Think About: Do I ever condemn others for things I struggle with myself?
One Thing to Pray For: Deeper awareness that my sin is not different from others’
