Now I know, brothers, that you acted in ignorance, like your rulers ??18 though this was how God fulfilled what he had announced beforehand by the lips of all the prophets, namely the sufferings of his Christ.

When it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And even after the sale, was the money not yours to do as you pleased about it? How could you think of doing a thing like this? You have not defrauded men but God."

Then all who were seated in the Sanhedrin fixed their eyes on him, and saw that his face shone like the face of an angel.

With a loud shriek they shut their ears and rushed at him like one man.

And the crowds attended like one man to what was said by Philip, listening to him and watching the miracles he performed.

Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was as follows: ??he was led like a sheep to be slaughtered, and as a lamb is dumb before the shearer, so he opens not his lips.

In a moment something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, got up and was baptized.

He saw heaven open and a vessel coming down, like a huge sheet lowered by the four corners to the earth,

"I was in the town of Joppa at prayer," he said, "and in a trance I saw a vision ??a vessel coming down like a huge sheet lowered from heaven by the four corners. It came down to me,

shouting, "Men, what is this you are doing? We are but human, with natures like your own! The gospel we are preaching to you is to turn from such futile ways to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.

He took them up to his house and put food before them, overjoyed like all his household at having believed in God.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also came across him. Some said, "Whatever does the fellow mean with his scraps of learning'?" Others said, "He looks like a herald of foreign deities" (this was because he preached 'Jesus' and 'the Resurrection').

But as these are merely questions of words and persons and your own Law, you can attend to them for yourselves. I decline to adjudicate upon matters like that."

So the city was filled with confusion. They rushed like one man into the amphitheatre, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were travelling with Paul.

"I should like to hear the man myself," said Agrippa to Festus. "You shall hear him to-morrow," said Festus.

Brothers, I would like you to understand that I have often purposed to come to you (though up till now I have been prevented) so as to have some results among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's transgression. Adam prefigured Him who was to come,

Nor is the free gift like the effect of the one man's sin; for while the sentence ensuing on a single sin resulted in doom, the free gift ensuing on many trespasses issues in acquittal.

For if we have grown into him by a death like his, we shall grow into him by a resurrection like his,

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

And Isaiah exclaims, with regard to Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved;

Indeed, as Isaiah foretold, Had not the Lord of hosts left us with some descendants, we would have fared like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorra.

Supposing some of the branches have been broken off, while you have been grafted in like a shoot of wild olive to share the rich growth of the olive-stem,

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

you are still worldly. For with jealousy and quarrels in your midst, are you not worldly, are you not behaving like ordinary men?

In virtue of my commission from God, I laid the foundation of the house like an expert master-builder. It remains for another to build on this foundation. Whoever he is, let him be careful how he builds.

For it seems to me that God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena! We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men!

Some of you were once like that; but you washed yourselves clean, you were consecrated, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

I would like all men to be as I am. However, everyone is endowed by God in his own way; he has a gift for the one life or the other.

To the unmarried and to widows I would say this: it is an excellent thing if like me they remain as they are.

Have we no right to travel with a Christian wife, like the rest of the apostles, like the brothers of the Lord, like Cephas himself?

To Jews I have become like a Jew, to win over Jews; to those under the Law I have become as one of themselves ??though I am not under the Law myself ??to win over those under the Law;

to those outside the Law I have become like one of themselves ??though I am under Christ's law, not outside God's Law ??to win over those outside the Law;

And you must not be idolaters, like some of them; as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to make sport.

But I would like you to understand this: Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.

for as woman was made from man, so man is now made from woman, while both, like all things, come from God.)

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I argued like a child; now that I am a man, I am done with childish ways.

Now I would like you all to speak with 'tongues,' but I would prefer you to prophesy. The man who prophesies is higher than the man who speaks with 'tongues' ??unless indeed the latter interprets, so that the church may get edification.

Well, I want you to put yourselves under people like that, under everyone who sets his hand to the work.

They refresh my spirit as they do your own. You should appreciate men like that.

Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life;

I am, for I am not like most, adulterating the word of God; like a man of sincerity, like a man of God, I speak the word in Christ before the very presence of God.

Am I beginning again to 'commend' myself? Do I need, like some people, to be commended by written certificates either to you or from you?

Such being my hope then, I am quite frank and open ??13 not like Moses, who used to hang a veil over his face to keep the children of Israel from gazing at the last rays of a fading glory.

Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison ??a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death;

Of an experience like that I am prepared to boast, but not of myself personally ??not except as regards my weaknesses.

I am astonished you are hastily shifting like this, deserting Him who called you by Christ's grace and going over to another gospel.

But I saw they were swerving from the true line of the gospel; so I said to Cephas in presence of them all, "If you live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, though you are a Jew yourself, why do you oblige the Gentiles to become Jews?" ??15 We may be Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners,'

and though my flesh was a trial to you, you did not scoff at me nor spurn me, you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus. You congratulated yourselves.

Now you are the children of the Promise, brothers, like Isaac;

envy, [murder], drinking bouts, revelry, and the like; I tell you beforehand as I have told you already, that people who indulge in such practices will never inherit the Realm of God.

among whom all of us lived, we as well as you, when we obeyed the passions of our flesh, carrying out the dictates of the flesh and its impulses, when we were objects of God's anger by nature, like the rest of men.

Now in the Lord I insist and protest that you must give up living like pagans; for their purposes are futile,

Be strictly careful then about the life you lead; act like sensible men, not like thoughtless;

instead of merely working when their eye is on you, like those who court human favour, do God's will from the heart like servants of Christ,

Only, do lead a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. Whether I come and see you or only hear of you in absence, let me know you are standing firm in a common spirit, fighting side by side like one man for the faith of the gospel.

so as to be blameless and innocent, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverse generation where you shine like stars in a dark world;

I have no one like him, for genuine interest in your welfare.

But you know how he has stood the test, how he has served with me in the gospel, like a son helping his father.

Give him a welcome in the Lord, then, with your hearts full of joy. Value men like that,

As you died with Christ to the Elemental spirits of the world, why live as if you still belonged to the world? Why submit to rules and regulations like

Servants, obey your masters here below at every point; do not work simply when their eye is on you, like those who court human favour, but serve them with a single heart out of reverence for your Lord and Master.

Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, salutes you ??a servant of Christ Jesus who is always earnest in prayer for you, that you may stand firm like mature and convinced Christians, whatever be the will of God for you.

no, we behaved gently when we were among you, like a nursing mother cherishing her own children,

not to gratify sensual passion like the Gentiles in their ignorance of God ??6 no one is to defraud or overreach his brother in this matter, for the Lord avenges all these sins, as we told you already in our solemn protest against them.

We would like you, brothers, to understand about those who are asleep in death. You must not grieve for them, like the rest of men who have no hope.

You know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night;

when 'all's well' and 'all is safe' are on the lips of men, then all of a sudden Destruction is upon them, like pangs on a pregnant woman ??escape there is none.

But, brothers, you are not in the darkness for the Day to surprise you like thieves;

Well then, we must not sleep like the rest of men, but be wakeful and sober;

Never censure an older man harshly; appeal to him as a father. Treat younger men like brothers,

older women like mothers, younger women like sisters ??with perfect propriety.

So do not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, and do not be ashamed of a prisoner of the Lord like me; join me in bearing suffering for the gospel by the power of the God

Join the ranks of those who bear suffering, like a loyal soldier of Christ Jesus.

and their doctrine spreads like a gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus;

you may be sure a man like that is perverted; he is sinning and he knows it.

I would have liked to keep him beside me, that as your deputy he might serve me during my imprisonment for the gospel;

they will perish, but thou remainest, they will all be worn out like a garment,

thou wilt roll them up like a mantle and they win be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years will never fail.'

for ours is no high priest who is incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every respect like ourselves, yet without sinning.

one who has no need, like yonder high priests, day by day to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for those of the People ??he did that once for all in offering up himself.

Now, while the copies of the heavenly things had to be cleansed with sacrifices like these, the heavenly things themselves required nobler sacrifices.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, like the high priest entering the holy place every year with blood that was not his own: ??26 for in that case he would have had to suffer repeatedly, ever since the world was founded. Nay, once for all, at the end of the world, he has appeared with his self-sacrifice to abolish sin.

Thus a single man, though he was physically impotent, had issue in number like the stars in heaven, countless as the sand on the seashore.

It was by faith that he left Egypt, not from any fear of the king's wrath; like one who saw the King Invisible, he never flinched.

It was by faith that they crossed the Red Sea like dry land ??and when the Egyptians attempted it they were drowned.

Only, let him ask in faith, with never a doubt; for the doubtful man is like surge of the sea whirled and swayed by the wind;

but let one who is rich exult in being lowered; for the rich will pass away like the flower of the grass ??11 up comes the sun with the scorching wind and withers the grass, its flower drops off, and the splendour of it is ruined: so shall the rich fade away amid their pursuits.

For whoever listens and does nothing, is like a man who glances at his natural face in a mirror;

he glances at himself, goes off, and at once forgets what he was like.

your gold and silver lie rusted over, and their rust will be evidence against you, it will devour your flesh like fire. [Moved to the end of 5:1] You have been storing up treasure in the very last days;

Elijah was a man with a nature just like our own; but he offered prayer that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain;

for All flesh is like the grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass: the grass withers and the flower fades,

Like newly-born children, thirst for the pure, spiritual milk to make you grow up to salvation.

come and, like living stones yourselves, be built into a spiritual house, to form a consecrated priesthood for the offering of those spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Live like free men, only do not make your freedom a pretext for misconduct; live like servants of God.

You were astray like sheep, but you have come back now to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

Keep cool, keep awake. Your enemy the devil prowls like a roaring lion, looking out for someone to devour.

Your sister-church in Babylon, elect like yourselves, salutes you. So does my son Mark.

and thus we have gained fresh confirmation of the prophetic word. Pray attend to that word; it shines like a lamp within a darksome spot, till the Day dawns and the daystar rises within your hearts ??20 understanding this, at the outset, that no prophetic scripture allows a man to interpret it by himself;