Book of Common Prayer
25 Circumcision of the body is a good thing if you obey the law. But if you break the law, you are like a man who has not been circumcised with this mark of the Jew.
26 So if a man who has not been circumcised obeys the law, will he not be like a man who has been circumcised?
27 Some people have not been circumcised, but they obey the law. They will show that you should be punished. You have the written law and you have been circumcised, and yet you break the law.
28 If a person is a Jew only on the outside, he is not really a Jew. And true circumcision is not something that is done on the outside of the body.
29 If a person is a Jew inside, he is really a Jew. It is God who praises him, not people. True circumcision is done in the heart. It is in the spirit, not in the body. Such people are not praised; but God praises them.
3 Then what does a Jew have that others do not have? Or what good is it if a person has been circumcised?
2 It is much better in every way. First, God's law was given to the Jews.
3 But some Jews did not keep his law. Does that mean that God cannot be trusted?
4 No, it does not mean that. God must be true, even if every man is not true. The holy writings say this about God: `People will see that you are right in what you say. You will be without fault when you are judged.'
5 When we do wrong things, we show that God is right. What shall we say about that? Does God do wrong when he punishes us? (I speak the way people would think about it.)
6 No, he does not. If he did wrong, how could he judge the world?
7 Maybe I say what is not true. And that makes people praise God more because he is true. Then why does God still judge me and say I have done wrong?
8 Some people say wrong things about us. They say that we say, `Let us do wrong things so that good things will happen.' People who say such things should be punished.
9 So what shall we say? Are we Jews any better than other people? No, we are not! I have already shown that all men, both Jews and people who are not Jews have done wrong things.
10 The holy writings say, `No one is good. No, not one person.
11 No one is wise. No one wants to know God.
12 They all have turned away from the straight road. Together they have gone the wrong way. No one does good, not even one person!
13 Their mouth is like an open grave. They have used their tongues to fool people. The poison of bad snakes is under their lips.
14 Their mouths are full of cursing and saying bad words to people.
15 Their feet run quickly to kill people.
16 Death and trouble are on the ways they go.
17 They do not know the way of peace.
18 They do not fear God.'
30 `I have no right to do anything myself. I judge the way I am told to judge. The way I judge people is right. I do not do what I myself want to do, but I do what my Father wants me to do. He sent me.
31 `If I talk about myself, then what I say is not true.
32 But someone else also speaks about me. I know what he says about me is true.
33 You sent someone to John and he has told you the truth about me.
34 I do not need to listen to what a person says about me. But I tell you this so that you may be saved.
35 John was a light burning and shining. For a while you were happy to be in his light.
36 But I have something greater than John to talk for me. It is the works that I do. My Father has given me works to finish. The works that I do tell that he sent me.
37 And my Father who sent me has himself talked about me. You have never heard him speak and you do not know what he is like.
38 The word he talks is not in your hearts, because you do not believe the one he sent to you.
39 `You read holy writings carefully. You think that there you will find out how to live for ever. In the same writings you will read about me.
40 And yet you will not come to me for that life.
41 I do not want people to call me great.
42 But I know that you do not love God in your hearts.
43 I have come in my Father's name, but you will not receive me. If another person comes in his own name, then you will receive him.
44 How can you believe? You are always calling each other great, but you do not want the only God to make you great.
45 Do not think that I will carry a complaint against you to my Father. Moses has already carried the complaint against you. He is the very one you trust.
46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me too, because he wrote about me.
47 But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?'
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