Therefore you have no excuse or justification, everyone of you who [hypocritically] judges and condemns others; for in passing judgment on another person, you condemn yourself, because you who judge [from a position of arrogance or self-righteousness] are habitually practicing the very same things [which you denounce].

And the very commandment which was intended to bring life, actually proved to bring death for me.

For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity].

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this very purpose, to display My power in [dealing with] you, and so that My name would be proclaimed in all the earth.”

“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

just as it is written [in Scripture],

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear,
[a spiritual apathy that has continued] to this very day.”

For this same reason you pay taxes, for civil authorities are God’s servants, devoting themselves to governance.

For Christ died and lived again for this reason, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

who risked their own necks [endangering their very lives] for my life. To them not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.