Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ “Israel, I have scattered you,” announces the Lord. “I have used the power of the four winds of heaven to do it. Come quickly! Run away from the land of the north,” announces the Lord.

⁷ “Come, people of Zion! Escape, you who live in Babylon!” ⁸ The Lord rules over all. His angel says to Israel, “The Glorious One has sent me to punish the nations that have robbed you of everything. That’s because anyone who hurts you hurts those the Lord loves and guards. ⁹ So I will raise my powerful hand to strike down your enemies. Their own slaves will rob them of everything. Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

¹⁰ “ ‘People of Zion, shout and be glad! I am coming to live among you,’ announces the Lord. ¹¹ ‘At that time many nations will join themselves to me. And they will become my people. I will live among you,’ says the Lord. Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you. ¹² He will receive Judah as his share in the holy land. And he will choose Jerusalem again. ¹³ All you people of the world, be still because the Lord is coming. He is getting ready to come down from his holy temple in heaven.”

The Law and Sin

⁷ What should we say then? That the law is sinful? Not at all! Yet I wouldn’t have known what sin was unless the law had told me. The law says, “Do not want what belongs to other people.” (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21) If the law hadn’t said that, I would not have known what it was like to want what belongs to others. ⁸ But the commandment gave sin an opportunity. Sin caused me to want all kinds of things that belong to others. A person can’t sin by breaking a law if that law doesn’t exist. ⁹ Before I knew about the law, I was alive. But then the commandment came. Sin came to life, and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the commandment that was supposed to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ When the commandment gave sin the opportunity, sin tricked me. It used the commandment to put me to death. ¹² So the law is holy. The commandment also is holy and right and good.

¹³ Did what is good cause me to die? Not at all! Sin had to be recognized for what it really is. So it used what is good to bring about my death. Because of the commandment, sin became totally sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is holy. But I am not. I have been sold to be a slave of sin. ¹⁵ I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. ¹⁶ I do what I don’t want to do. So I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, I am no longer the one who does these things. It is sin living in me that does them. ¹⁸ I know there is nothing good in my desires controlled by sin. I want to do what is good, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I don’t do the good things I want to do. I keep on doing the evil things I don’t want to do. ²⁰ I do what I don’t want to do. But I am not really the one who is doing it. It is sin living in me that does it.