Romans 2:8
but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
In the previous verse, God promises eternal life to those who seek well-doing. In this verse, He promises wrath and fury to those who seek their own selfish ways that are contrary to truth and righteousness.
Self-seeking people are those who live their life by their own rules and for their own purposes. Their manner of life is leading them away from God. In fact, their lifestyle is resistant to God and the way He expects us to live our lives. They tend to become contentious and hostile when told that their lifestyle is contrary to truth and righteousness.
Self-seeking people refuse to live in line with truth. God is the source of truth. He reveals it to us through the Holy Spirit and the bible. When we refuse to obey the truth, which He has clearly revealed to us, then we are self-seeking.
While self-seeking people refuse to obey the truth, they are quite willing to obey unrighteousness. They have actually become convinced that their unrighteousness is right and true. Unrighteousness is any act that is contrary to laws and standards of right and wrong. God is the ultimate standard of righteousness.
God’s response to self-seeking people is scary. Wrath is a hot, fierce and explosive anger. Fury is an ongoing angry disposition toward someone that results in punishment for wrong doing. Now matter how you look at it, this is not where we want to be in our relationship to God.
September 12th, 2014 at 11:08 am
We suppress the truth by our unieghtrous living. (Romans 1:18). Therefore, when someone does confess their sin to us directly or in our presence, the truth of our sin that we have suppressed is called out and we, in our flesh, resist this light that is shining into us. This produces that messy unwillingness to listen to someone else who is confessing. The most typical response is silence or blowing it off.I intensely share the same frustration. It’s also messy when we do confess our sin, with zeal and fervor, deeply desiring to live in freedom, and maybe it isn’t always appropriate. However, I’ll speak for myself and say I’d much rather have this latter messiness than the former.