Romans 2:8-16

This passage says:

But He will show how angry and furious He can be with every selfish person who rejects the truth and wants to do evil. All who are wicked will be punished with trouble and suffering. It doesn't matter if they are Jews or Gentiles. But all who do right will be rewarded with glory, honour, and peace, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. God has no favourites!

Those people who don't know about God's Law will still be punished for what they do wrong. And the Law will be used to judge everyone who know what it says. God accepts those who obey His Law, but not those who simply hear it.

Some people naturally obey the Law's commands, even though they don't have the Law. This proves that the conscience is like a law written in the human heart. And it will show whether we are forgiven or condemned when God appoints Jesus Christ to judge everyone's secret thoughts, just as my message says.

I have been wicked and You have punished me with trouble and suffering. But now, forgive me for my sins and lift up and take away from me this terrible suffering. Please give me peace. Help me to remember Your law and apply it in my life. Make my conscience more sensitive to Your Law and provide me with wisdom on how to discern my sins, how to avoid sinning and how to still live in this world as a practical human being. Jesus Christ, Lord, listen to my secret thoughts and awaken my awareness of them and make my thoughts pure and acceptable under God's Law.

I pray for V and C, who do not appear to be in You. You have said how angry and furious You would be with people who reject the truth and want to do evil. Please stir their conscience today and make them highly aware of your Law. And through this awareness, bring them to You, bring them to hear Your voice, to love You, to seek for You. And dear Lord. Be found by them.

The Bridgeway Bible Commentary says that punishment may not come immediately after the sin. But this is really a moratorium, a time when God gives time, in His kindness and patience to allow me to repent.His kindness does not mean weakness, but is intended to allow me to repent.

The Bible.org commentary says that "Romans 2:1-16 is a powerful passage about the nature of God's justice. It also says that other commentators suggest that what Paul is referring to is the true condition for eternal life—a condition he will demonstrate (by the end of 3:20) that no human being can fulfill. Thus the true condition for eternal life, the very demand of the Law of God, is to produce the good without ceasing and without failure in the outcome, ever. Of course, no one can fulfill the demand".

Dear God, how do I produce the good without ceasing? Tell me. Give me the wisdom. Give me the ability to search out practical strategies for this. May your image, that is within me, from Adam, be the dominant self and the fallen self, lessen and lose her power.

In Jesus' name I pray these. Amen

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