Romans 2:21-22b

you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

(v21-22, NIV)

Paul points out these three things about Jews. The main point is hypocrisy and most of them would deny it (or so I would assume). When Paul makes these accusations and the Jews deny it, what is Paul's response? Surly Paul must have expected at least some of them to deny this. There are couple of things Paul could say in response and these are the things John Piper suggests. First, he could agree with the Jews on one level in that they do not commit these particular sins. However, there are some Jews who in fact do steal, commit adultery and fall into idolatry. In proving this, he shows that the Jews aren't special just because they have the law. Simply having the law doesn't mean that you are suddenly superior and in God's grace. It is a valuable and desirable thing to be given the law. However, as we read earlier in this chapter, it is not the hearers of the law who are justified, but the doers.

In response to the Jew's denial of these accusations, Paul could also make the point that each and every one of them does in fact commit some secret sin. Nobody's perfect, and whether we can see it or not, there is at least some secret sin evident in each of their lives.

Another thing that Paul could say in response to their denial of these accusations is that they in fact do commit one of these sins. How can he say this? Well, the fact of the matter is that these Jews do not teach themselves. They teach others, but not teaching themselves shows that they in fact do not understand it. The Jews elevate themselves or they idolize rules and regulations that they have made up themselves. They are robbing God of the glory he rightly deserves; this is stealing, adultery and idolatry. They are stealing away God's glory that is not their own. In addition, it is adultery in a sense. We all belong to God and our hearts belong to God. However, when we offer our heart to someone other than the one whom it belongs to, we are committing adultery. This is what the Jews do in not having faith and trusting themselves to the one and only God. Instead they are hypocrites and do not teach themselves; they live differently than what they preach. So these accusations, Paul may argue that they do in fact rightly fall upon them.