[19] Manifestly "_the_ Law" in this passage means not the ceremonial law of Israel, but the revealed moral law given to Israel, above all in the Decalogue. This appears from the language of ver. 15, which would be meaningless if the reference were to special ordinances of worship. The Gentiles could not "shew the work of" _that_ kind of "law written in their hearts"; what they shewed was, as we have explained, a "work" related to the revealed claims of God and man on the will and life. CHAPTER VII _JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY AND GUILT_ ROMANS ii. 17-29 "_The Jew, first, and also the Greek_"; this has been the burthen of the Apostle's thought thus far upon the whole. He has had the Jew for some while in his chief thought, but he has recurred again and again in passing to the Gentile. Now he faces the Pharisee explicitly and on open ground, before he passes from this long exposure of human sin to the revelation of the glorious Remedy. [Sidenote: Ver. 17.] =But if[20] you,= you emphatically, the reader or hearer now in view, you who perhaps have excused yourself from considering your own case by this last mention of the responsibility of the non-Jewish world; =if you bear the name of Jew,= whether or no you possess the corresponding spiritual reality; =and repose yourself upon the Law,= as if the possession of that awful revelation of duty was your protection, not your sentence; =and glory in God,= as if He were your private property, the decoration of your national position, whereas the knowledge of Him is given you in trust for the world; [Sidenote: Ver. 18.] =and know the Will,= His Will, _the_ Will supreme; =and put the touchstone to things which differ,= like a casuist skilled in moral problems; =schooled out of the Law,= under continuous training (so the Greek present participle bids us explain) by principles and precepts which the Law supplies;--[Sidenote: Ver. 19.] =(if) you are sure that you, yourself,= whoever else, =are a leader of blind men, a light of those who are in the dark,= [Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =an educator of the thoughtless, a teacher of beginners, possessing, in the Law, the outline,[21]= the system, =of real knowledge and truth,[22]= (the outline indeed, but not the power and life related to it):--if this is your estimate of your position and capacities, I turn it upon yourself. Think, and answer--[Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =You therefore, your neighbour's teacher, do you not teach yourself? You, who proclaim, Thou shalt not steal, do you steal?= [Sidenote: Ver. 22.] =You, who say, Thou shalt not commit adultery, do you commit it? You, who abominate the idols,= affecting to loathe their very neighbourhood, =do you plunder temples,= entering the polluted precincts readily enough for purposes at least equally polluting? [Sidenote: Ver. 23.] =You who glory in the Law,= as the palladium of your race, =do you, by your violation of the Law, disgrace your[23] God?= [Sidenote: Ver. 24.]