Romans 2:1
Romans 2:11You, 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.
Watchtower commentary takes 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.
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.