Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

He

Guilt Offerings for Other Sins

6 The Lord told Moses these rules for the people: ² “You are guilty of sin against the Lord when you do any of these things: when you lie about what happened to something you were taking care of for someone else; when you lie about a deposit^[a] you received; when you steal something; when you cheat someone; ³ when you find something that was lost and lie about having it; when you fail to keep a promise; or when you do any other bad things like these. ⁴ If you do any of these things, you are guilty of doing wrong. You must give back whatever you stole or whatever you took by cheating. You must return whatever you took that another person asked you to hold, or whatever you found and lied about having, ⁵ or whatever you made a false promise about. You must pay the full price and then add one-fifth of that amount as a fine and give it all to the true owner. ⁶ You must also bring a ram to the Lord that has nothing wrong with it (or the same amount in silver) to the priest. ⁷ Then the priest will go to the Lord to make you pure, and God will forgive you for whichever of these things you did that made you guilty.”

² Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you start following the law by being circumcised, then Christ cannot help you. ³ Again, I warn everyone: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then you must follow the whole law. ⁴ If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is finished—you have left God’s grace. ⁵ I say this because our hope of being right with God comes through faith. And the Spirit helps us feel sure as we wait for that hope. ⁶ When someone belongs to Christ Jesus, it is not important if they are circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.