---
title: Romans 2:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-2-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-2-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Romans 2:1
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Romans 2:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, if you judge; for when you judge another, you condemn yourself"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Romans 2:1 as a warning against hypocritical judgment — those who judge others must first examine themselves. The verse is read as a moral exhortation encouraging humility and self-examination before Jehovah's judgment seat. The Watchtower's broader judicial system is held to operate within this principle.

## Protestant Usage

Romans 2:1 opens Paul's prosecution of self-righteous Jewish moralism. The wider argument runs from 1:18 to 3:20: Gentiles fail (1:18-32), Jews fail (2:1-29), all fail (3:9-20). Paul's rhetorical move is to turn the moralist's judgment back on himself: "you who judge practice the same things." This is the prosecution setting the standard. The verdict comes in 3:23 — "all have sinned" — and the rescue in 3:21-26: "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Anyone who reads Romans 2 as a recipe for earning justification is reading the prosecution as if it were the verdict.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Doers of the Law — Romans 2:13](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/romans2-13-doers-justified.md) — Paul's principle vs Paul's conclusion [Salvation]