Romans 2:13

BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.”

What this verse means

A short, plain-language explanation of Romans 2:13 goes here — the kind of answer a reader (or an AI assistant) can quote in one breath. Original meaning coming soon.

Compare translations
BSBPD

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.”

Berean Standard Bible · Public Domain (CC0)
KJVPD

“(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”

King James Version · Public Domain
ASVPD

“for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified;”

American Standard Version · Public Domain
YLTPD

“for not the hearers of the law <FI>are<Fi> righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be declared righteous: --”

Young's Literal Translation · Public Domain
Open the full comparison
Cross references

Other passages that echo Romans 2:13 — 24 related verses from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  1. Deuteronomy 4:1Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
  2. Deuteronomy 5:1Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.
  3. Deuteronomy 6:3Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
  4. Deuteronomy 30:12It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’
  5. Psalms 143:2Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
  6. Ezekiel 20:11And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.
  7. Ezekiel 33:30As for you, son of man, your people are talking about you near the city walls and in the doorways of their houses. One speaks to another, each saying to his brother, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD!’
  8. Matthew 7:21Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
  9. Luke 8:21But He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.”
  10. Luke 10:25One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
  11. Luke 18:14I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
  12. Acts 13:39Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
  13. Romans 2:25Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
  14. Romans 3:20Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
  15. Romans 3:23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
  16. Romans 3:30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
  17. Romans 4:2If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.
  18. Romans 10:5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
  19. Galatians 2:16know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
  20. Galatians 3:11Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
  21. Galatians 5:4You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
  22. James 1:22Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
  23. James 2:21Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
  24. 1 John 2:29If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

Cross-reference data: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain) via OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Keep exploring