002:023 You who make your boast in the Law, do you offend against its
commands and so dishonour God?
002:024 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentile nations
because of you, as Holy Writ declares.
002:025 Circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the Law;
but if you are a Law-breaker, the fact that you have been
circumcised counts for nothing.
002:026 In the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just
requirements of the Law, shall not his lack of circumcision
be overlooked, and,
002:027 although he is a Gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the Law,
shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do,
a written Law and circumcision, are yet a Law-breaker?
002:028 For the true Jew is not the man who is simply a Jew outwardly,
and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily.
002:029 But the true Jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision
is heart-circumcision--not literal, but spiritual;
and such people receive praise not from men, but from God.
003:001 What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or what benefit
is to be derived from circumcision?
003:002 The privilege is great from every point of view. First of all,
because the Jews were entrusted with God's truth.
003:003 For what if some Jews have proved unfaithful? Shall their
faithlessness render God's faithfulness worthless?
003:004 No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man
should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou
mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest,
and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."
003:005 But if our unrighteousness sets God's righteousness in a
clearer light, what shall we say? (Is God unrighteous--