[2:17] What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God;
[2:18] you know what God wants you to do, and you have learned from the Law to choose what is right;
[2:19] you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness,
[2:20] an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth.
[2:21] You teach others—why don't you teach yourself? You preach, “Do not steal”—but do you yourself steal?
[2:22] You say, “Do not commit adultery”—but do you commit adultery? You detest idols—but do you rob temples?
[2:23] You boast about having God's law—but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law?
[2:24] The scripture says, “Because of you Jews, the Gentiles speak evil of God.”
[2:25] If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised.
[2:26] If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will not God regard him as though he were circumcised?
[2:27] And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised.
[2:28] After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing.
[2:29] Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.
[3:1] Do the Jews then have any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised?
[3:2] Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews.
[3:3] But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful?
[3:4] Certainly not! God must be true, even though all human beings are liars. As the scripture says, “You must be shown to be right when you speak; you must win your case when you are being tried.”
[3:5] But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God's doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.)
[3:6] By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?
[3:7] But what if my untruth serves God's glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner?
[3:8] Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.
