Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

HE

6 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘A person may take something that is not his. Or he may find it and keep it. He may tell his friend that he has not taken it. He might not give him the correct price for something. But then he is not obeying the Lord. ³ A person may speak words that are not true. That is a sin. A person may keep something that belongs to another person. He does not give it back. That is a wrong thing to do. He might find something and then he might say that it is his. If it is not his, he is not obeying God. ⁴ He has done something that is wrong. So he must show that he is sorry. He must give back anything that is not his. He must give back anything that he has found. He must give back anything that he has kept. He must give it to the person to whom it belongs. ⁵ He must give back everything and one fifth more. He must also, on the same day, give a gift to the Lord. ⁶ He must bring a sheep to the priest. The sheep must be a perfect male animal. The sheep must be worth the right amount of money. ⁷ The priest will give the sheep to the Lord. It is an atonement for the wrong things that the person has done. Then the Lord will forgive the person.’

² Listen carefully! I, Paul, tell you this. If you agree that someone should circumcise you, then Christ will be worth nothing to you. ³ I will say it very clearly. Every man who lets someone circumcise him must then obey all the Jewish rules. ⁴ I say this to you people who try to obey the rules of God's Law. If you think that God will accept you as right because you do that, you have turned away from Christ. You no longer agree to accept God's kind gift. ⁵ But if we trust what Christ has done for us, God's Spirit helps us to wait. We are sure that God will accept us as right with him. ⁶ We belong to Christ Jesus. So it does not matter whether anyone has circumcised us or not. The only thing that matters is that we believe in Christ. As a result we will love others in the way that we live.