From Zephaniah 2:4 through chapter 3,verse 8,we see the judgments of God upon the nations of the world. His judgments are worldwide,which only makes sense because He is the Creator of the universe and of this world and of mankind. Thankfully,He is also the Redeemer of mankind. Because of Who He is,Holy,Just,and Righteous,God will judge the nations and the people for their sin and rejection of His Son,Jesus Christ. J. Vernon McGee wrote:God has put up certain standards that have become worldwide. They have been written into the Ten Commandments,which God gave to Moses. All nations have a sense of right and wrong,although they may vary on what is right and what is wrong. A missionary was telling me about a tribe he had worked with in the South Seas. They were head-hunters;they were cannibals. But he said that they had a high sense of honesty. He told me that you could take your pocketbook with your money in it and put it down in the center of where the tribe dwelt and leave it there for a week,and nobody would touch it. But,of course,they did not mind eating their mother-in-law for dinner. They did have a high sense of honesty.
People have a sense of standards,because God has put that into them. Paul wrote:Romans 2:12-16 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law:and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;(13) (For not the hearers of the law are just before God,but the doers of the law shall be justified. (14) For when the Gentiles,which have not the law,do by nature the things contained in the law,these,having not the law,are a law unto themselves:(15) Which show the work of the law written in their hearts,their conscience also bearing witness,and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) (16) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
The Gentiles – non-believers – have not been given the Law that was given to Moses. However,when they live their day to day lives,they may end up keeping certain aspects of the Law – for example:they could be setting aside the Sabbath day as a day of rest,or they may be not be thieves or killers. Their actions may be correct,but the motivation for the actions will not be the same as a believer in Jesus Christ. The believer in Jesus Christ will obey God’s commandments because they love Him and want to bring glory to Him. The non-believer may have certain standards,but if they are not God’s standards,then those standards will not help the non-believer no matter how sincerely they hold to those standards. Those head-hunters had a high standard of honesty,but they violated God’s standards by killing and eating people. Your sincerity will not be a deciding factor on the Day of Judgment. A man wrote:Returning home from school one day,my little boy came to me with the evidence of what he had had for lunch smeared all over his mouth. I told him to go wash his face and come back to show me the results. He returned in a hurry,saying,“I am all clean now,Daddy.”“Are you?”I asked. “Sure. I washed just like you told me to.”From his point of view he was clean,but from where I stood he still looked dirty. It is not what we think of ourselves that counts,but what God our Creator thinks of us.