Romans 2:21
Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
The question is put to one who is called by God's name, who rests in the law, who boasts of God, who knows His will and approves excellent things, who is confident that he is a guide of the blind, a light in darkness, an instructor of the foolish and a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. Such a teacher is required to teach, correct and govern himself before he teaches another. What is demanded is fulfilling and doing the law, not merely acknowledging its authority, knowing it, or having outward profession, position and outward circumcision. The law is the standard of righteousness and the expression of God's character, and when treasured in the heart it controls speech and life. Outward appearance testifies to the inward working of the heart, so that true standing is inward, with circumcision of the heart in the spirit, by zeal according to knowledge as doers of the Word and not hearers only.
To preach that a man should not steal, commit adultery, abhor idols, or commit sacrilege, while stealing, committing adultery and impurity, committing sacrilege and breaking the law boasted in, is hypocrisy that stands condemned. It breaks the law, dishonors and degrades God and His truth, and causes the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. The Jewish teachers who most zealously advocated God's law were themselves transgressors of it, teaching others what they did not practice themselves and perverting God's law. The same exposure falls on religious teachers who profess piety and instruct others in right conduct but fail to live by it, as when priests condemned Greeks and Romans as sinners yet the wise men stood higher in God's sight than these professed worshipers.
The warning applies to those who judge, number, or put human measurement upon others, that they must first take heed to their own conduct and life. Numbering Israel and measuring ministering brethren, judging character, oppressing them, and standing apart as holier, is forbidden, since no man can read the heart and the one found fault with may be more righteous before God. In the perils of the last days ministers must turn from hasty temper, impatience, hasty speech and exhibition of self, take heed to themselves, and put no occasion of stumbling in a brother's way. Ministers are required to examine their motives and lives and to practice the truths they preach rather than allowing selfishness to rule them.
The rebuke falls on a married minister and professed follower of Christ who teaches others yet carries on improper familiarities and gives to another professing Christian woman attentions that belong only to his wife. Setting thoughts and affections upon another woman while having a lawful wife, giving loose rein to thought with fevered imagination and lust of the flesh, is daily transgression of the commandments professed, sin against God and an abomination in His sight. It brings darkness and discouragement, deeply wounds and burdens His cause and does injury to it, so that God could not work through him or bless his preaching while his thoughts were so fixed. In the same way a minister cannot handle the bodies of youth in vile, lustful practice and lead young women into abominable practices that lead to lewdness and ruin and at the same time preach the Word to sinners; such sinful preaching dishonors and degrades the truth and is hated by God.
Applied to God's professed people given great light and opportunity, the rebuke is against cherishing idols as Israel cherished the golden calf, especially pride and idolatry in dress and outward adornment, where pride buds and blossoms in apparel and separates from God.