002:020 a schoolmaster for the dull and ignorant, a teacher of the young, because in the Law you possess an outline of real knowledge and an outline of the truth: 002:021 you then who teach your fellow man, do you refuse to teach yourself? You who cry out against stealing, are you yourself a thief? 002:022 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who loathe idols, do you plunder their temples? 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-- I speak in our everyday language--when He inflicts punishment? 003:006 No indeed; for in that case how shall He judge all mankind?) 003:007 If, for instance, a falsehood of mine has made God's truthfulness more conspicuous, redounding to His glory, why am I judged all the same as a sinner? 003:008 And why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"Let us do evil that good may come"? The condemnation of those who would so argue is just.