Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise to the Loving God

Laws about Truthful Testimony

23 “You are not to spread a false report, nor are you to join forces^[a] with the wicked to be a malicious witness. ² You are not to follow the majority^[b] in doing wrong, and you are not to testify in a lawsuit so as to follow the majority and pervert justice. ³ You are not to show partiality to a poor man in his lawsuit.

⁴ “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you are to certainly return it to him. ⁵ If you see your enemy’s donkey lying helpless under its load, you must not abandon it; rather, you are certainly to return it to him.^[c]

⁶ “You are not to pervert justice for the poor among you^[d] in their lawsuits.^{[e] 7} Stay far away from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent or the righteous, because I won’t acquit the guilty. ⁸ You are not to take a bribe because a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and distorts the words of the righteous. ⁹ You are not to oppress the resident alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Everyone is a Sinner

3 What advantage, then, does the Jew have, or what value is there in circumcision? ² There are all kinds of advantages! First of all, the Jews^[a] have been entrusted with the utterances of God. ³ What if some of the Jews^[b] were unfaithful? Their unfaithfulness cannot cancel God’s faithfulness, can it? ⁴ Of course not! God is true, even if everyone else is a liar. As it is written,

⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God’s righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.) ⁶ Of course not! Otherwise, how could God judge the world? ⁷ For^[e] if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness glorifies him even more, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ⁸ Or can we say—as some people slander us by claiming that we say—“Let’s do evil that good may result”? They deserve to be condemned!