Romans 2:4 in Its Place

Romans 2:4 is short and gentle, and it seems to settle the whole question of how a person changes. Here it is in full:

Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and makrothymia μακροθυμία mak-roth-oo-mee'-ah(patience, long-suffering), not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to metanoia μετάνοια met-an'-oy-ah(repentance, spiritual domain)?

A popular claim has grown from this verse. God, it says, does not change people by confronting them; He changes them by being kind to them. The way to lead someone to repentance, then, is to let him feel God’s kindness, and the experience of that kindness, the moment of being overwhelmed by how good God has been, is itself the repentance. There is no need to speak of sin. Show people kindness, and the turning will take care of itself.

It is easy to see why people love this. It sounds like the father in the story of the prodigal son, and it sounds like grace. Romans 2:4 is right as it stands: God’s kindness really does lead to repentance.

But Paul’s sentence does not end at verse 4.

Where the Verse Is Going

Before reading on, look closely at the verse itself, because it already says more than the claim allows.

Paul says that the kindness of God “leads you to metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain).” Whatever leads you to a place is not the place itself. In this verse kindness is what moves you, and repentance is where it is taking you.

The word Paul uses for repentance is metanoia (μετάνοια), a turning of mind and direction. As Book 1 showed, repentance in Scripture is a return, a turning around and coming back. It is not a feeling that washes over a person but a change in the direction he is walking.

The claim has quietly exchanged the two and called the vehicle the destination. Feeling God’s kindness and turning to God are not the same event; the one is meant to produce the other.

The word for kindness deserves attention as well. In “the riches of His kindness” it is chrestotes χρηστότης khray-stot'-ace, and “the kindness of God” that leads you comes from the same root. Its meaning is moral goodness, integrity, and that matters. This is not the kindness of a pushover who hates conflict, but the goodness of someone whose character is straight all the way through. That goodness is patient, and the verse itself names what it is for: it “leads you to metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain).”

Within this gentle verse Paul also asks a sharp question: “do you despise the riches of His kindness”? A person can receive the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience and treat them with contempt. Paul shows how in the very next line.

The Runway

Think of a runway at an airport. It is long and wide for one reason, so that a plane can gather speed and lift off. A good runway is a gift, for without one no plane could fly.

A runway is not a place to park, however. A pilot who taxied up and down it all day, admiring how long and smooth it was, would have misunderstood what it is for. And every runway, however long, has an end.

God’s kindness is that runway. His forbearance, His patience, and the time He gives are all there so that a person may turn. Now read where Paul goes next:

Romans 2:5-8 But according to your hardness and ametanoeton(unrepentant, spiritual domain) kardia καρδία kar-dee'-ah(heart, soul-domain), you are storing up orge ὀργή or-gay'(wrath) for yourself in the day of orge(wrath) and revelation of the dikaiokrisia δικαιοκρισία dik-ah-yok-ris-ee'-ah(righteous-judgment) of God, who will render to each one according to his works: to those who by perseverance in good work seek glory and honor and incorruptibility — eternal zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life); but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the aletheia ἀλήθεια al-ay'-thi-a(truth) but obey unrighteousness — orge(wrath) and fury.

The passage opens, “But according to your hardness and ametanoeton(unrepentant, spiritual domain) kardia(heart, soul-domain).” The word ametanoetos ἀμετανόητος am-et-an-o'-ay-tos is metanoia’s own root with the small Greek prefix a-, meaning “without.” Paul has just spoken of the kindness that leads to metanoia, and in the next breath he speaks of a heart without it, a heart without repentance. He sets the two side by side on purpose. Here is a person who has received the kindness and has not turned.

What is happening to that person? The claim imagines that kindness simply keeps flowing until the heart melts, but Paul says that the unrepentant person is “storing up orge(wrath) for yourself in the day of orge(wrath).” The verb is thesaurizo θησαυρίζω thay-sow-rid'-zo, to lay up, to store up as treasure. A day spent enjoying God’s patience without turning is not a day of standing still, for something is being laid up.

Paul then describes the day that is coming, when God “will render to each one according to his works.” To those who by perseverance in good work seek glory, honor, and incorruptibility, He gives eternal life. To those who “do not obey the aletheia(truth) but obey unrighteousness” come wrath and fury.

Read together, verses 4 and 5 give the whole picture. The kindness is real and rich, and it is meant to lead somewhere. And the same paragraph says that wrath is being stored up for the heart that receives that kindness without repenting.

Hearers and Doers

A few lines later Paul says it in a way no one can miss. We met this verse in Chapter 1, but here it stands just after the kindness and the wrath:

Romans 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) who are righteous before God, but the doers of the nomos(law) who will be justified.

The two words are simple. A hearer sits in the audience; a doer puts the instruction into practice. Paul says that the righteous are not those who hear the Torah but those who do it.

Paul is not offering a way to earn the free gift. As Chapter 1 showed, a sinner is declared righteous by grace, through faith in the Messiah’s blood, and not by works. But here, in the same letter, Paul makes plain what kind of people the righteous are. They are not people who listened to the commandments, felt warmly about God, and went on as before. They are people whose lives took the shape of what they heard.

Set this beside the claim we began with. If experiencing God’s kindness were itself repentance, then a person who was deeply moved in a worship service and walked out unchanged would have repented. In Paul’s terms that person is a hearer, perhaps moved and perhaps grateful, but not turned.

What Kindness Is For

The verse on which the claim rests is true, and every word of it can be held fast. God is kind, His kindness is rich, and His patience is long. All of it is aimed at one thing: that a person would turn around and come back.

The kindest thing one can do for a friend, then, is not to speak only of kindness, but to tell him where the kindness is leading and what happens to a heart that refuses to turn. Paul did both in one breath.

That brings us to a scene that is often used to say the opposite. When Yeshua met a thirsty woman at a well in Samaria, He offered her living water, and many take that conversation as the model for sharing the gospel: make people thirsty, and leave sin and the law out of it. The conversation, however, goes on past the offer of water, and it deserves to be read to the end.