The Honour of God’s Name
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Romans 2:17-24
Paul’s charge against his fellow Jews in this passage is based on his awareness, through the revelation of the gospel, that what the prophets said about Israel had come true. Israel had failed; devastation and exile followed. The worst thing about exile though was not the geographical displacement, which came to an end when at least some of the Jews returned to their land. The worst thing about exile was that foreigners were ruling over God’s people. That kind of exile was still going on in Paul’s day.
The point of his accusations in the form of the five questions above (2:21-23) was not that he thought all Jews committed all these sins routinely. The point was that even if some Jews were doing these things – and all Jews would acknowledge that many were – this completely undercut Israel’s boast that, as a nation, it was still the light of the world, able to reveal God’s law and truth to humanity. The fact of continuing sin within Israel confirmed the prophet’s charge: when the nations look at you they curse God. The only solution was for the Messiah to come who would carry in Himself all Israel’s sin and establish a new covenant in which people would be transformed from within.
Paul never denies Israel’s claims. His point here and particularly in the passages that follow, is that Israel was indeed God’s chosen people and that the law was truly the holy law of the one true God. National Israel had failed in its calling. Paul will wrestle with that problem too in due course. But God had not failed. The passages which follow in Romans will show how God has remained true to His calling despite the failure of the people He called.
‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’ (2:24). The theme of God’s name is rich in Scripture. God will not allow His name to be misused (Exodus 20:7) and will take strong action to protect it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations (Ezekiel 20:8,9,14,22). ‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the holy One in Israel’ (Ezekiel 39:7). Here the nations would be reached when God’s name was honoured. But in Romans 1:5 ‘Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith’ Paul saw the nations being reached so God’s name would be honoured.
We must live lives that honour God’s name. Psalm 69:6 is a very valid prayer for every disciple of Christ to make his or her own: ‘May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O lord, the Lord Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel’