Romans 2:2-4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But we are sure Greek, οιδαμεν, we know; though men may judge partially and perversely, yet God will judge uprightly; that the judgment of God The sentence that he will pronounce upon persons, whether Jews or Gentiles, is according to truth According to the true state of every man's case; or according to the true character of persons, and the true quality of the actions and dispositions; (Romans 2:5-11;) against them who commit such things However they may behave toward their fellow-creatures. Dr. Macknight, who understands the expression, according to truth, as signifying, “according to the true meaning of God's covenant with the fathers of the Jewish nation,” observes, “By this declaration, the apostle reprobates the erroneous opinion confidently maintained by the Jews, who, fancying that by their natural descent from Abraham, they were entitled to the promises made to his seed, firmly believed that no Jew would be damned.” And thinkest thou this, &c. Canst thou then, by the sentence which thou passest upon others, think to evade that which goeth forth against thyself? Or despisest thou Dost thou go further still, and, from hoping to escape his wrath, dost thou proceed to abuse his love? The riches Or the abundance; of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering Exercised for such a length of time toward thee, who not only hast sinned, but dost sin, and wilt sin. The word, καταφρονεω, here rendered despise, also signifies to think against, to think wrong, or misconstrue; and the clause may be fitly translated, Dost thou misconstrue, or form a wrong opinion of, the goodness of God? God's goodness, of which the Jews formed a wrong opinion, or which they despised, consisted chiefly in his having made them his church and people, in his having frequently, in an extraordinary manner, protected them against or delivered them from their enemies, conferred upon them innumerable blessings, temporal and spiritual, especially the latter, having from time to time raised up among them divinely-inspired prophets, to reveal his will to them, to instruct, warn, caution, and exhort them, and having intrusted with them his holy oracles. From these marks of the divine favour they vainly inferred that God would punish no descendant of Abraham for his sins in a future state. But in this they grievously erred, for the goodness of God, together with his other attributes here mentioned, was not intended to make sinning safe to the Jews, but to lead them to repentance for their sins. Forbearance (Greek, ανοχη) is that disposition in God by which he forbears to punish sin immediately upon its being committed; long-suffering Or slowness to anger, signifies his deferring for a long time to punish; and here it seems chiefly to intend his patiently bearing long the ill use which the Jews made of the privileges they enjoyed as his church and people, and of the various blessings he had conferred upon them.