Romans 2:17–29

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God^{* 18}and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, ¹⁹and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,^{* 21}you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?^{* 22}You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? ²⁴For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemedⁱ among the gentiles because of you.”^*

²⁵Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.^{* 26}So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. ²⁸For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^{* 29}Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.^*