But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the {e} truth, but obey unrighteousness, {f} indignation and wrath,

(e) By truth he means the knowledge which we naturally have.

(f) God's indignation against sinners, which will quickly be kindled.

People's New Testament

2:8 But to them. God rewards the righteous according to their works as described in the previous verse; so also the wicked, as this verse describes.

Contentious. Who seek their own way, instead of God's way, and contend against God.

Do not obey the truth. God's law is truth. Sinners fight against God and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness. This verse describes the character of the wicked. Ro 2:9 declares God's judgment upon them.

Wesley's Notes

2:8 But to them that are contentious - Like thee, O Jew, who thus fightest against God. The character of a false Jew is disobedience, stubbornness, impatience. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish - Alluding to Psalm 78:49: He cast upon them, the Egyptians. the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble; and finely intimating, that the Jews would in the day of vengeance be more severely punished than even the Egyptians were when God made their plagues so wonderful.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, &c.-referring to such keen and determined resistance to the Gospel as he himself had too painfully witnessed on the part of his own countrymen. (See Ac 13:44-46; 17:5, 13; 18:6, 12; and compare 1Th 2:15, 16).

indignation and wrath-in the bosom of a sin-avenging God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-16 The Jews thought themselves a holy people, entitled to their privileges by right, while they were unthankful, rebellious, and unrighteous. But all who act thus, of every nation, age, and description, must be reminded that the judgment of God will be according to their real character. The case is so plain, that we may appeal to the sinner's own thoughts. In every wilful sin, there is contempt of the goodness of God. And though the branches of man's disobedience are very various, all spring from the same root. But in true repentance, there must be hatred of former sinfulness, from a change wrought in the state of the mind, which disposes it to choose the good and to refuse the evil. It shows also a sense of inward wretchedness. Such is the great change wrought in repentance, it is conversion, and is needed by every human being. The ruin of sinners is their walking after a hard and impenitent heart. Their sinful doings are expressed by the strong words, treasuring up wrath. In the description of the just man, notice the full demand of the law. It demands that the motives shall be pure, and rejects all actions from earthly ambition or ends. In the description of the unrighteous, contention is held forth as the principle of all evil. The human will is in a state of enmity against God. Even Gentiles, who had not the written law, had that within, which directed them what to do by the light of nature. Conscience is a witness, and first or last will bear witness. As they nature. Conscience is a witness, and first or last will bear witness. As they kept or broke these natural laws and dictates, their consciences either acquitted or condemned them. Nothing speaks more terror to sinners, and more comfort to saints, than that Christ shall be the Judge. Secret services shall be rewarded, secret sins shall be then punished, and brought to light.