Romans 2:21-24
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What's easily missed here is Paul isn't just asking if teachers don't practice what they preach; he's highlighting how a teacher who sins is actually worse than a Gentile sinner because their hypocrisy brings God's name into disrepute. Their public pronouncements against sin, while their own lives contradict them, make their transgressions incredibly blatant and shameful.
you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
English Standard Version (ESV)
Paul is addressing the Jewish people who pride themselves on knowing God's law and teaching it to others, especially to the Gentiles. He's just shown how Gentiles who don't have the law still act as a law to themselves and are judged by their conscience. Now, he turns the tables on the Jews, highlighting their hypocrisy by asking if they, the teachers, actually live according to the very laws they proclaim, even accusing them of specific sins like theft and sacrilege.
You're great at telling others what to do, but have you ever stopped to consider if you're actually doing it yourself? This verse calls out a profound disconnect.
Paul here lays bare a fundamental hypocrisy. The religious leaders, particularly the Jews who boasted in their knowledge of the Law, were teaching others to follow God's commands. Yet, the apostle asks a piercing question: Are they actually practicing what they preach?
What happens when our pride in knowing God's Word outstrips our commitment to obeying it? This verse reveals the devastating consequences.
The Jewish people of Paul's day had a great deal to boast about – their covenant relationship with God, their knowledge of the Law, their status as teachers of the nations. But Paul shows that this knowledge, when unapplied, is not a badge of honor but a source of deep dishonor.
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Understand the original words
didaskeis · Greek Verb
The act of instructing or providing guidance, often involving the transmission of moral or religious truth. In a biblical context, it implies the responsibility of the teacher to embody the truth they impart.
kērussōn · Greek Verb
To publicly proclaim or herald a message. In Scripture, it often refers to the proclamation of God's word or moral exhortation.
klepteis · Greek Verb
The act of taking the property of another without permission; in the Mosaic Law, it is explicitly forbidden as a violation of one's neighbor and of God's command.
moichaai · Greek Verb
Sexual relations between a married person and someone other than their spouse; it is a serious violation of the marriage covenant and God’s standard of holiness.
bdelussomenos · Greek Verb
To hate, detest, or regard with extreme repugnance. Theologically, it describes the necessary attitude toward that which God rejects, particularly false gods.
eidōla · Greek Noun
Images or physical objects worshipped as gods; idolatry is the fundamental sin of substituting the creature or created things for the Creator.
hierosyleis · Greek Verb
To take something by force or theft. Here, it refers to the sacrilegious act of plundering pagan shrines, implying an ironic contradiction for those who claim to despise idols.
kauchasai · Greek Verb
To take pride or glory in something. Biblically, boasting is only valid when it is in the Lord and His works, rather than in self or one's own religious status.
nomon · Greek Noun
The divine instruction or moral code given by God, primarily to Israel, to reveal His holiness and man's need for redemption.
atimazeis · Greek Verb
To treat with lack of respect or to shame. When directed toward God, it involves conduct that misrepresents His character or contradicts His revealed will.
blasphēmeitai · Greek Verb
To speak reproachfully, irreverently, or abusively against God or sacred things, bringing shame upon God's character and reputation.
ethnē · Greek Noun
Literally 'nations'; refers to all people groups other than Israel. In the New Testament, it often highlights the missionary context of the gospel going beyond the Jewish people.
Paul directly confronts the hypocrisy of Jewish religious leaders who taught others to obey the Law but failed to follow its commands themselves. This was a well-known issue, as many leaders had become corrupt and exploitative, bringing shame upon God's name.
c. 500 BC
Post-Exilic Recommitment to the Law
After the Babylonian exile, the Jewish people, particularly its leaders, deeply recommitted to upholding the Law of Moses as a way to distinguish themselves and avoid future disaster. This led to a strong emphasis on teaching and adherence to its commands.
c. 400-300 BC
Malachi's Rebuke of Sacrilege
The prophet Malachi condemned the priests and people for 'robbing God' by withholding tithes and offerings, highlighting a spiritual decay and hypocrisy that had set in, even among religious leaders.
c. 100 BC - AD 100
Period of Widespread Jewish Religious Corruption
Historical accounts from figures like Josephus and Jesus' own rebukes describe a period where religious leaders and many Jews were notoriously guilty of greed, hypocrisy, and various sins, despite their outward observance of the Law.
c. AD 30-33
Jesus' Denunciation of Hypocrisy
Jesus publicly condemned the religious leaders of his day for their hypocrisy, stating they 'tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but will not lift a finger to move them' and 'cleanse the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside, they are full of greed and self-indulgence'.
c. AD 50-60— this verse
Paul Writes to the Romans
The Apostle Paul writes his letter to the church in Rome, addressing the moral and spiritual condition of both Gentiles and Jews. He confronts the false pride of those who, particularly Jewish teachers, claimed superior knowledge of God's Law but failed to live by it.
Jesus directly calls out the religious leaders for saying one thing and doing another, mirroring Paul's accusation in Romans 2:21 about hypocrisy in teaching.
Ezekiel 36:23This passage speaks to God's concern for His name being profaned among the nations due to Israel's actions, a theme echoed by Paul's concern that the Jews' behavior causes God's name to be blasphemed (Romans 2:24).
Malachi 3:8The prophet Malachi confronts the people for robbing God, which aligns with Paul's accusation of 'sacrilege' against the teachers who claimed to follow the Law but failed to honor God.
James 2:10James's teaching that breaking one point of the law makes one guilty of breaking the whole law powerfully underscores Paul's argument about the futility of external adherence without internal transformation.
bensonRomans 2:21: "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?"
Romans 2:21-24 . Thou therefore which teachest another — And valuest thyself upon thy ability to do it, trusting therein for acceptance with God; teachest thou not thyself? — He does not teach himself, who does not practise what he teaches. This, and what follows, is mentioned, to show that the knowledge, which the scribes and doctors pretended to derive…
pulpitRomans 2:21: "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?"
Verse 21. - Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? The οῦν here does not involve an anacoluthon after the reading εἴ δὲ in ver. 17, though St. Paul would not have much cared if it had been so. It serves only to sum up the lengthened protasis, and introduce the apodosis: "If... dost thou then," etc.? In what follows it is not, o…
What's easily missed here is Paul isn't just asking if teachers don't practice what they preach; he's highlighting how a teacher who sins is actually worse than a Gentile sinner because their hypocrisy brings God's name into disrepute. Their public pronouncements against sin, while their own lives contradict them, make their transgressions incredibly blatant and shameful.
Paul is addressing the Jewish people who pride themselves on knowing God's law and teaching it to others, especially to the Gentiles. He's just shown how Gentiles who don't have the law still act as a law to themselves and are judged by their conscience. Now, he turns the tables on the Jews, highlighting their hypocrisy by asking if they, the teachers, actually live according to the very laws they proclaim, even accusing them of specific sins like theft and sacrilege.
Paul is addressing the Jewish people who pride themselves on knowing God's law and teaching it to others, especially to the Gentiles. He's just shown how Gentiles who don't have the law still act as a law to themselves and are judged by their conscience. Now, he turns the tables on the Jews, highlighting their hypocrisy by asking if they, the teachers, actually live according to the very laws they proclaim, even accusing them of specific sins like theft and sacrilege.
"you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law…" — What's easily missed here is Paul isn't just asking if teachers don't practice what they preach; he's highlighting how a teacher who sins is actually worse than a Gentile sinner because their hyp…
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Last reviewed October 2026
