I don’t know that there is a verse in the Bible more searching in terms of how we see ourselves than this: Romans 2:1 (NET)
“You are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge someone else. For on whatever grounds you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.”
By way of clarification, the Apostle Paul is referring to the kind of judging that looks down on others as being morally inferior or corrupt. With that in mind, perhaps a paraphrase might help:
“You are without excuse, whoever you are, when you look down on someone else. For on whatever grounds you consider someone to be morally compromised, you condemn yourself, because you who look down on someone else’s behavior practice the same things.”
What does the apostle mean? He can’t mean that the down-lookers do the exact same behaviors as those they look down on. I suggest he’s highlighting something deeper, that is, that everyone — without exception — has their own way of caving to their own moral weaknesses and frailties. Hence he’s saying, in effect, so you are looking down on someone else’s moral weakness? You had better have a good hard look at yourself and ask, just how am I doing at consistently overcoming my own moral frailties and weaknesses?
And if we are going to be brutally honest with ourselves, we know that just as that person who’s behavior we can’t stand is simply caving to his weakness, we are no different because we cave to our weaknesses too. Hence we do the same thing as the very person we’re looking down on.
