Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. But I would not have known what sin meant, if not by the law. For I would not have known what coveting meant unless the law had said, You shall not covet. ⁸ But sin took occasion by the means of the commandment, and wrought in me all manner of inordinate desire. For without the law, sin was dead. ⁹ I once lived without law. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I was dead. ¹⁰ And the very same commandment that was ordained for life, was found to be to me an occasion of death. ¹¹ For sin took occasion by the means of the commandment, and thus deceived me, and by the same commandment slew me. ¹² Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good.

¹³ Was then that which is good, made death to me? God forbid. No, sin was death to me, so that it could appear how sin, by the means of that which is good, had wrought death in me; so that sin which is under the commandment might be out of measure sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin, ¹⁵ inasmuch as I know not what I do. For what I would, I do not, but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If I would rather not do that which I do, I grant to the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So then now it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is to say, in my flesh) dwells no good thing. To will is present with me, but I find no means to perform that which is good. ¹⁹ For I do not that good thing which I would, but I do the evil that I would not. ²⁰ Finally, if I do what I do not want, then it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me does it.