Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

6 The Lord said to Moses, ² “A person might sin against the Lord by doing one of these sins: He might lie about what happened to something he was taking care of for someone else. Or he might lie about a promise he made. Or he might steal something or cheat someone. ³ He might find something that had been lost and then lie about it. He might make a promise before the Lord about something and not mean it. Or he might do some other sin. ⁴ If he does any of these things, he is guilty of sin. He must bring back whatever he stole. Or he must bring back what he took by cheating. Or he must bring back the thing he took care of for someone else. Or he must bring back what he found and lied about. ⁵ Or he must bring back what he made a false promise about. He must pay the full price. Then he must pay an extra one-fifth of the value of what he took. He must give the money to the true owner. This must be done on the day he brings his penalty offering. ⁶ He must pay a penalty to the priest. It must be a male sheep from the flock. It must not have anything wrong with it. And it must be worth the correct amount. It will be a penalty offering to the Lord. ⁷ Then the priest will perform the acts to remove that person’s sin so he will belong to the Lord. And the Lord will forgive him for the sins that made him guilty.”

² Listen! I am Paul. I tell you that if you go back to the law by being circumcised, then Christ is no good for you. ³ Again, I warn every man: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then you must follow all the law. ⁴ If you try to be made right with God through the law, then your life with Christ is over—you have left God’s grace. ⁵ But we hope to be made right with God through faith, and we wait for this hope anxiously with the Spirit’s help. ⁶ When we are in Christ Jesus, it is not important if we are circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.