Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁷ Behold, you are called a Jew, and trust in the law, and put confidence in God, ¹⁸ and know his will, and have confirmation of good and bad in that you are instructed by the law. ¹⁹ And you believe that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness – ²⁰ an instructor of those who lack wisdom and a teacher of the unlearned, who has the example of that which ought to be known, and of the truth, in the law. ²¹ But you who teach another, do not teach yourself. You preach that a person should not steal, and yet you steal. ²² You say a person should not commit adultery, and you break wedlock. You abhor images, and rob God of his honour. ²³ You boast in the law, and through breaking the law dishonour God. ²⁴ For the name of God is ill spoken of among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written.

²⁵ Circumcision indeed avails, if you keep the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore if the uncircumcised man keeps the righteous things contained in the law, shall his uncircumcision not be counted for circumcision? ²⁷ And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it keeps the law, condemn you who, being under the letter and circumcision, do transgress the law? ²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is a Jew outwardly. Neither is that thing circumcision which is outward in the flesh. ²⁹ But he is a Jew who is hid within, and the circumcision of the heart is the true circumcision, which is in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.