Earlier in Romans, Paul addressed the self-satisfied non-Christian critic of human nature as follows: “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance”—that is, as J. B. Phillips correctly paraphrases, “is meant to lead you to repentance.” “You. . . pass judgment on them and yet do the same things”—yet God has borne with your faults, the very faults which you regard as meriting his judgment when you see them in others, and you ought to be very humble and very thankful. But if, while tearing strips off others, you omit to turn to God yourself, then “you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,
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