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Encouraging others to sin is condemned in the last section. Judging others, however, does not put one in a favorite position either. God’s judgment is based on truth. Sinners will be judged whether they condemn the sins of others or not. Because, however, God is waiting for them to repent, he postpones the judgment (vv.1-4).
On the Day of Judgment God will render to each according to what each has actually done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life (v.7). These are Christians, not non-Christians (Greathouse, 74). In 3:12 Paul explicitly says that apart from God’s grace “there is no one who does good, not even one.” Only Christians will seek glory, honor and immortality because these are connected with the Christian Gospel (8:18, 21; 1Co 15:43, 53). Those who reject the truth and follow evil will be punished (vv.5-11).
God’s judgment is fair. All who sin apart from the law (the Gentiles) will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law (the Jews) will perish under the law. “The law” refers to the Mosaic Law, which the Gentiles do not have (v.14). People are responsible and will be judged in direct proportion to the light they have. Jews do not have any advantage over Gentiles. On the Day of Judgment, it is not the hearer but the doer of the law who will be declared righteous before God.
This does not disfavor Gentiles either. By nature Gentiles do not have the law. (In v.14, physis [“by nature”] modifies who do not have the law, not do things required by the law. The parallel thought occurs in 2:27. There physis, translated as “physically,” modifies “who is not circumcised,” not “obeys the law.”) Yet it is possible for Gentiles to do the things required by the law (2:12-16). In 8:3-4 Paul explicitly says that the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in Christians, Jews or Gentiles, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. These Gentiles who do the things of the law are Christians (8:3-4). Apart from God’s enabling, no one can fulfill the requirements of the law and be declared righteous before God (3:20; 7:14-25).