Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ “Get up! Leave the land of the north”^(A)—this is the Lord’s declaration—“for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven”—this is the Lord’s declaration. ⁷ “Go, Zion! Escape, you who are living with Daughter Babylon.” ⁸ For the Lord of Hosts says this: “He has sent Me^[a] for His glory against the nations who are plundering you, for anyone who touches you touches the pupil^[b] of His^[c] eye. ⁹ I will move against them with My^[d] power, and they will become plunder for their own servants.^(B) Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Me.^[e]

¹⁰ “Daughter Zion, shout for joy and be glad, for I am coming to dwell among you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. ¹¹ “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day and become My^[f] people.^(C) I will dwell among you, and you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Me^[g] to you. ¹² The Lord will take possession of Judah as His portion in the Holy Land, and He will once again choose Jerusalem.^{(D) 13} Let all people be silent^(E) before the Lord, for He is coming from His holy dwelling.”

Sin’s Use of the Law

⁷ What should we say then?^(A) Is the law sin? Absolutely not!^(B) On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.^(C) For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.^{(D)[a] 8} And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,^(E) produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.^{(F) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was meant for life^(G) resulted in death for me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me,^(H) and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the law is holy,^(I) and the commandment is holy and just and good.

The Problem of Sin in Us

¹³ Therefore, did what is good cause my death?^[b] Absolutely not!^(J) On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual,^(K) but I am made out of flesh,^[c] sold^(L) into sin’s power.^{(M) 15} For I do not understand what I am doing,^(N) because I do not practice what I want to do,^(O) but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.^(P) For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me.