Audio commentary on this verse

Note 2 at Rom. 2:21: The Jews took pride in their keeping of the law but there wasn't any Jew who could boast that he had kept the law perfectly (see note 4 at Mk. 10:20, p. 388). "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Paul highlights three areas in which they boasted of their own holiness but he reveals that they were actually sinners in these very things.

They boasted that they didn't steal, but Paul reveals that they did steal. Jesus also rebuked the Pharisees for stealing. This is not the typical type of theft but what we would call "white collar crime" (see ref. r, at Rom. 2:21, p. 751).

Paul says that they were adulterers, even though they prided themselves on not committing adultery. They were guilty of spiritual adultery if nothing else (Jas. 4:4) and Jesus had revealed that adultery was also a sin of the heart, even if there was no action (Mt. 5:28).

They also thought they were not idolatrous, but Paul convicts them on this count also. He uses the word "sacrilege" which refers to them being temple robbers, thereby making direct reference to their covetousness which is idolatry (Col. 3:5).

Therefore, even though they had a form of godliness, they were sinners just like the Gentiles, and their hypocrisy gave the Gentiles a reason to blaspheme God. This leads Paul to proclaim that the Jews' claim to some kind of special covenant with God is made void through their breaking of the law. In the third chapter of Romans, he goes on to draw the conclusion that everyone, Jew and Gentile, is in the same condition of sin and needs the same salvation through Christ.