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.

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked him, `Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother when he does wrong things to me? Should I forgive him seven times?'

²² Jesus answered him, `I say not seven times only, but seventy times seven.

²³ `In that way the kingdom of heaven is like this. A king was ready to finish his business with his servants.

²⁴ The first servant was brought in. He owed the king a very large sum of money.

²⁵ He could not pay it. So his master said, "Go sell him, his wife, his children, and everything he has, and pay me!"

²⁶ So the servant bowed down in front of him. He begged, "Sir, give me time. I will pay everything."

²⁷ His master was sorry for him and let him go. He did not make him pay the money.

²⁸ `That same servant went out and met another servant. This man owed him a much smaller sum of money. He caught him by the throat and said, Pay me what you owe me!"

²⁹ Then this servant bowed down in front of him. He begged, "Give me time. I will pay you."

³⁰ But he said, "No." He went and put the man in prison until he could pay what he owed him.

³¹ `The other servants saw what he did. They were very sad. They went and told their master everything that had been done.

³² Then his master called the first servant to him. He said, "You bad man! I let you go. I did not make you pay all you owed me, because you begged me to be kind to you.

³³ You should have been kind to the other servant, as I was kind to you."

³⁴ His master was very angry. He turned the servant over to the prison guards until he could pay all he owed him.

³⁵ `That is like what my Father in heaven will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.'