Romans 2:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Romans 2:8

Comments

‘But unto them that are contentious’, that is, contentious against the truth, contentious against the law written on their hearts, those who shout these things down, those who discredit these things, and resist them, and make excuses. ‘To them that are contentious’, which implies there is a fight, even in the heart of the wicked to explain himself, to excuse himself. He is contentious. He is grumbling and arguing against the truth.‘And do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.’ How do you obey unrighteousness? In the same way that a subject obeys a king, or a servant obeys a master, in ancient times. The apostle has got the masters and servants illustration here. Those who obey unrighteousness are people who do its bidding, follow every temptation. They say, ‘This is the way. I am going to do what I like, live how I like.’ I make myself a servant of the opposite to God.‘But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness[:] indignation and wrath.’ You really need a colon there after ‘unrighteousness’, rather than a comma. It would be helpful, so that you separate between the word ‘unrighteousness’ and the words ‘indignation and wrath’. The one who obeys unrighteousness could even be somebody with a profession of faith in a Christian church: a person who quibbles with the standards, who is contentious. They do what they want to do, what suits them.Indignation and wrath are what come from God upon those who are condemned; tribulation and anguish in the next verse is what the condemned person feels as a result. In response to disobedience and hardness of heart and arguing against the truth, comes the indignation of God, and his wrath, and the punishment that implies. No one can say that God’s wrath is uncontrolled, when he waits so long before fully unleashing it. But when it comes, although it is held back for so long, it is full of fury that has not abated over time.

Application

Without God you are an obedient servant of temptation and evil, of unrighteousness, wrong thoughts, tempers, pride, and all the sins that have already been listed by Paul in chapter 1. You obey them. If you're not a believer in the Lord and you haven't found Christ and you don't belong to him. You may think you are free, but you're not. You're a hopeless, obedient servant of sin and unbelief. Everything the world tells you which builds up your unbelief, you latch onto it and obey it. Like a soldier, you stand to attention. To such people will come God's indignation and wrath, tribulation, pain and anguish. Oh, what bitter, bitter, tearful regret forever ‘upon every soul of man’, every individual, ‘that doeth evil’, whether he's a Jew or whether he's a Gentile; it doesn't matter.

What an amazing thing when we stand in judgment we are going to be rewarded for what we received by grace. We are going to be rewarded for what Christ and the Spirit of God have really done for us and in us. We are going to be rewarded for what was our delight and happiness. We shall be rewarded for what we were helped to do. That is the amazing privilege of the child of God in the Day of Judgment.

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Romans 2:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of Romans 2:8 explained