Romans 2: You Who Teach Others, Do You Teach Yourself?

Introduction

"You then who teach another, don't you teach yourself?" (Romans 2:21). Dr Peter Masters of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London continues his series in the epistle to the Romans with the second half of chapter 2, and gives his message a title in the form of a question: do we teach ourselves?

The passage begins at verse 12: "For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law." Verses 13 to 15 form a parenthesis, and verse 16 picks the thread back up: God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ, according to what Paul calls "my gospel."

The preacher walks through these verses: the conscience everyone carries within, the secrets that will be exposed, and those two words of Paul, "my gospel." Then he comes to what he calls a thunderclap: you who have so much light, have you thought of teaching yourself? He almost apologizes for it: "Forgive the negative tone I seem to be taking, but it is a kindness, friends."

Outline of the Message

1. It Is Not Those Who Hear the Law Who Are Righteous

In verse 12, Paul is thinking first of the Gentiles. They do not have the law of Moses, the ten commandments, the first five books of the Bible that set out what to do and what not to do. They sinned without the law and will perish without the law.
The Jews, by contrast, are privileged: they have the revelation, the instruction, the law of God. They will be judged by it.
Verse 13 is a hypothetical statement: it would be those who put the law into practice who would be justified. But in reality, not one person has fulfilled it. Paul will show this later in the epistle: we are hopeless sinners, our debt of guilt is too heavy, and no one is justified by works. We need grace.
Many Jews of that time, though not all, took the law not as a standard of righteousness but as a guarantee: since God had given it to them, they were special, redeemed, forgiven. They needed neither a Savior nor salvation. Devout Jews, on the other hand, knew they needed God's forgiveness and trusted in the Savior to come.
What counts is not having the law and hearing it week after week, but putting it into practice.

2. The Law Written on the Conscience

Gentiles who do not have the law often do by nature what it commands (verse 14). They are good to their children, and they care for the needy. They never read Moses or heard preaching in a synagogue, but the same law is in their conscience, as it is in ours.
The Jew will be judged by the greater light of the published Word, the Gentile by the witness of his conscience: he knew what he ought to do.
In verse 15, the conscience bears witness "alongside" the mind. You know how to tell right from wrong, and another voice stands beside you to rebuke you, "as if there were a magistrate, a policeman inside you, a schoolmaster watching your work over your shoulder." You knew you should not tell that lie. The voice said, "That is wrong," and you desperately looked for a way to justify yourself.
Sadly, the conscience can be put out of action. The first method is to ignore it and steamroll over it. The third time, it is weakened; the fourth time, it hardly speaks; the fifth time, you feel nothing.
The second method, probably the favorite, is to argue with it. "It is justified, because of this and that. If you were in my place, you would do the same. I am not doing it as badly as others."
The third method, widely practiced in society, is to rewrite the conscience. "It is not wrong, it is just Victorian prudishness, a standard imposed by a past generation." People even ask Parliament to change the laws to help rewrite it.
But it is still there. John Bunyan described it perfectly: the character Mr. Recorder escapes from prison and starts to shout. Some people die terrible deaths because their conscience breaks free at the last minute. It will speak against you before God. "It is there to help you. Why make an enemy of it?"

3. God Will Judge the Secrets of Men

Verse 16 picks up the thread of verse 12: God will judge through Jesus Christ, the one God has appointed as judge, as many passages teach.
What is the great secret? It could cover everything. Perhaps there is a hypocrite in the congregation: you say you believe, you may even have become a church member, but you do not pray, you do not seek holiness, you do not love the Lord and you do not serve him. No one knows. "Friends, be careful." It will come out into the open, and it may be too late.
The secret may also be a sin wrapped up like a parcel, hidden in your thought life where no one sees: images looked at, things considered or imagined, where the devil draws you in through temptation. Even the person dearest to you does not know. It will be exposed.

4. "My Gospel": A Word That Sanctifies

Some critics lean on these words to set Paul's teaching against that of Christ, as if Paul had created something else. Peter Masters answers that this is absurd: in a Bible with cross-references, you can see how deeply each of Paul's expressions is rooted in the Old Testament and in the teaching of Christ himself. Just half an hour of meditating on the references in one chapter of Romans is enough to see it.
Paul was in full agreement with the apostles who had walked with the Lord. "My gospel" first recalls that he received the truth by direct revelation from Christ, he who was the last of the apostles, the one born at the wrong time (1 Corinthians 15:8).
But there is more: he had made the gospel his own, like that Old Testament prophet who was asked to eat the scroll (Ezekiel 3:1-3). He believed it with his whole being, and he lived for it. We say "my wife," "my husband," "my children": there is no one closer on earth. "My gospel" is a part of me.
Wherever people had heard of Paul, his coming meant the coming of the gospel. The epistle to the Romans passes for a book of doctrine, and yet, barely into chapter 2, we have already found two or three gospel messages: the need for salvation, for trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, for repenting, for being born again by the power of the Spirit.
The secretary of a church in Scotland told the preacher about their search for a pastor: young preachers set their conditions (so many weeks of vacation, so many rooms, this and that). You cannot imagine Paul setting conditions. He lived by faith, often working to earn his living: "I have been given a charge. The Lord will provide."
"It is a tremendous word. I recommend it to you." Can you say "my gospel"? Does it govern you and motivate you? Is it everything to you, to the point of devoting your possessions and your gifts to see it advance?

5. The Privileges We Boast About

Verses 17 to 20: you bear the name of Jew, you rest on the law, you boast in God, you know his will, you approve what is excellent. You believe you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness (an Old Testament expression for the nations), a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the ignorant.
Peter Masters points out these privileges without expanding on them: a civilized people, instructed by Moses, who love virtue, who have schools for small children, who keep order and lift up those who fall behind. Confident that they can teach the nations, even if they never do.

6. "You Do Not Teach Yourself!"

Then comes the bomb, the thunderclap of verse 21. Paul could simply have asked, "Do you teach yourself?" He turns the sentence differently, with an almost mocking surprise: "You are so good, so capable. Surely you have not forgotten to teach yourselves?"
"Let us stop talking about the Jews. Let us talk about ourselves." You have the light of Calvary, the gospel is clear to you, you love it and you trust in it. You can be a light, a witness, and many have the privilege of teaching in Sunday school. You teach others. Have you taught yourself?
An example: in the early 1970s, a pastor in Michigan published a small book for women's meetings, titled Beauty Care for the Tongue. Picked up by a major publisher for an adult audience, it was often given in England as a Sunday school prize.
Peter Masters knows of a man who had almost torn his family apart. He was a sincere Christian who loved the Lord, but he could not control his anger. An anger management course had not helped him (the preacher does not belittle such courses). His family could hardly take any more. He was given this book, which had not been written for him. Through prayer, through the power of the Holy Spirit and through his own efforts, he was healed of his anger. The family became happy, and he, a simple layman, became in his own way a wonderful shepherd of souls.
The secret of the book: a course of instruction, steps toward right speech, Scriptures, a way of reviewing your conduct, of praying, of practicing. "That is what the apostle says. Do you not teach yourself? Do you not train yourself?" Do you not keep a record of your falls and your regular sins, so that you can pray, fight and note your progress?
"Our highest task is to teach ourselves holiness. The second is to teach ourselves to witness." In your job, you were trained, you learned the basics, the theory and the application. Without that, you could not work. And holiness takes second place, with no structured attention at all.
The preacher calls for a daily self-examination: "Where am I with this, and with that?", and for conscious prayer to be helped to overcome this or that sin.

7. Stealing, Committing Adultery, Robbing Temples

"You who preach that one shouldn't steal, do you steal?" Do you, in one form or another? "You who say a man shouldn't commit adultery, do you commit adultery?" Is your thought life pure?
"You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?" The Greek term means to plunder a temple. You would never go near a pagan temple, but believers rob the temple every time they sing a hymn without thinking, just for the swing of a tune they like: they steal the worship of the Church.
Peter Masters also targets services turned into entertainment, with a band at the front, a steady beat that makes bodies sway, and Christian words laid on top. For him, this is robbing the temple wholesale: stripping it of its reverence, its focus on God, its sense of the divine, and turning it into a concert hall.
Verse 23: by breaking the law, you dishonor God. Verse 25: circumcision is of value if you keep the law. Applied to us: professing faith in Jesus Christ and being truly converted brings a gain, a blessing. Salvation is free, but once saved, you have the light, you can bring others to the Lord, be a shepherd and a support.
But if sin comes easily and we do not teach ourselves, our profession becomes worthless. And, verse 24, the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of us: the witness is discredited.
The preacher concludes on a positive note: "Let us make it our gospel, and teach ourselves holiness every day, and God will bless us, enrich us and use us."

Key Takeaways

No one is justified for having heard the law: what matters is doing it, and since no one does it perfectly, we all need grace.
The conscience is a voice God has placed in everyone. You can ignore it, argue with it or rewrite it, but one day it will speak.
God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ, hidden hypocrisy as well as sin in the thought life.
"My gospel": the gospel must become a part of you, what governs you and motivates you.
Your highest task is to teach yourself holiness, with the same rigor you brought to learning your trade.

Personal Application

Is there an area where you have learned to silence your conscience, by ignoring it, arguing with it or rewriting it?
What secret, in your thought life or your spiritual life, do you need to bring to God before the day it is exposed?
Can you say "my gospel"? What in your time, your possessions and your gifts shows it concretely?
What sin keeps coming back in your life, and what simple course (Scripture, prayer, daily examination, tracking progress) could you set up to teach yourself in that area?
When you sing in worship, are you really attentive to God, or do you let the tune carry you along?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "you who teach others, you do not teach yourself" mean in Romans 2:21?

Paul is addressing Jews who were proud of knowing the law and of being able to instruct others. For Peter Masters, the wording carries an almost mocking surprise: "Surely you have not forgotten to teach yourself?" The question applies to every Christian who knows the gospel and teaches it, but does not apply the discipline of holiness to himself.

How do people silence their conscience, according to Romans 2:15?

Peter Masters describes three ways: ignoring it until it says nothing more, arguing with it by piling up justifications, or rewriting it by deciding that what was wrong no longer is. But the conscience is still there, and it will speak against us before God. It is there to help us: why make an enemy of it?

Why does Paul speak of "my gospel" in Romans 2:16?

It is not a different gospel from that of the other apostles: Paul is in full agreement with them and his teaching is rooted in the Old Testament. "My gospel" recalls that he received it by direct revelation from Christ, and above all that he made it his own, the way we say "my wife" or "my children." He lived for it.