Romans 2 · a question people ask
"O man, whoever you are who judge" (2:1), and "you bear the name of a Jew" (2:17). Whom is the letter speaking to?
The chapter says only what these verses say. It speaks to a "you" it calls "O man, whoever you are who judge" (2:1), and again, "O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same" (2:3). Later it says, "Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God" (2:17), and asks five questions (2:21-23). The chapter doesn't say whether the one spoken to in 2:1-5 is the one spoken to from 2:17, and it gives neither a name. These notes identify the "you" of this chapter with no one beyond the verses' own words, and apply none of it to any people, group or person today.
The verses
“Therefore 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.”
“Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?”
“Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God,”
“You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law?”