The Foremost Sinner

As the Apostle Paul addresses himself to the issue of some Jews being boastful of their relationship to God (Romans 2:17), it would be an easy thing to throw them all into one washtub and declare that every Jew was like some Jews.  Such would have been a mistake then even as it would now.  What many of us do is to allow stereotyping to serve us as a window for understanding the issues Paul was seeking to address in this section of the letter.     

There have been times when I have encountered well meaning Christian folks who saw themselves as being spiritually head and shoulders above the rest of us who called ourselves Christians.  Quite often the personal sense of spiritual superiority came from exposure to some preacher, participation in some retreat, or an experience which regular Christians lack in their spiritual resume.  This is not to say that all Christians can be so characterized, but, of course, it is true of some.  Whether these folks be Christian or Jew they can make it hard for the believers who are still trying to figure out the way forward in their faith.  

One of the things for which Paul had no tolerance or patience was an attitude of superiority which gets in the way of ordinary folks who are seeking to follow Christ.  Paul understood the kind of superiority present in some because he learned about it when it was present in his own heart.  Before the encounter on the Damascus Road, he saw himself as one of the entitled who had a place of special favor in the eyes of God.  Afterwards, he knew himself as one who was the foremost of sinners.