Romans 2:21-23 : Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou rob temples? thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonorest thou God? These are searching questions. Any man is a poor teacher if he does not teach himself while he is teaching others. He is a poor preacher that cannot preach better than he can practice, but he is a poorer preach-er if he does not try hard to live up to his preaching. The Jews had reached the point where they taught much and practiced little. We are reminded of what Jesus said of the Jewish leaders: "They say, and do not." No one should he guilty of adultery, and certainly the man who preaches against it should not be guilty of it. The American Standard Version's rendering of the question about abhorring idols and robbing temples is not easily understood. But the word translated "rob temples" means either to rob temples or to commit sacrilege. The meanings are closely related for, if a person robbed a temple, he would, in the estimation of the worshipers at that temple, commit sacrilege. To commit sacrilege is to abuse sacred things, or to make common use of them. The Jews were very much given to profaning God's holy things. Ezekiel 22:26 makes this charge: "Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things." He immediately explains how they had done this: "They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the clean and the unclean." They had profaned God's holy things by putting the com-mon and the unclean--things of their own devising into the worship and service of God. The Jews in Paul's day had profaned God's holy things by their traditions and in converting the temple into a place of merchandise and fraud. In many ways they com-mitted sacrilege, but it is not so manifest that they robbed temples. Hence, on this point the rendering of the King James Version seems better: "Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?" What avails it, if a person abhors idols and yet is so dis-respectful to God as to commit sacrilege against God's holy things? It would be difficult to tell whether the idolater or the professed believer who commits sac-rilege dishonors God the more. The Jews gloried in the law--gloried in the fact that the law had been given to them; yet in their transgressions of the law they dishonored God's law.