is no need for him to show in detail at this stage how utterly false such a charge would be. In the third and last section of the letter (‘The argument from results’, 5:2–6:18), Paul will develop this thought further. If the first sentence had been standing by itself, unquestionably the above would have been the simplest interpretation. But in view of what follows, it may be better to understand it something like the following: ‘If, at the very moment when we say that we ourselves are justified by