I have desired no one's silver or gold or clothing.

By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law.

They have been informed about you -- that you teach all the Jews now living among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.

What then should we do? They will no doubt hear that you have come.

So do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow;

take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in conformity with the law.

But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter, having decided that they should avoid meat that has been sacrificed to idols and blood and what has been strangled and sexual immorality."

So I asked, 'What should I do, Lord?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything that you have been designated to do.'

because you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.

And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.'

Paul looked directly at the council and said, "Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God to this day."

The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Have courage, for just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."

They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, "We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to partake of anything until we have killed Paul.

He replied, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as if they were going to inquire more thoroughly about him.

So do not let them persuade you to do this, because more than forty of them are lying in ambush for him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him, and now they are ready, waiting for you to agree to their request."

Then the commanding officer sent the young man away, directing him, "Tell no one that you have reported these things to me."

When Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, "We have experienced a lengthy time of peace through your rule, and reforms are being made in this nation through your foresight.

For we have found this man to be a troublemaker, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

When the governor gestured for him to speak, Paul replied, "Because I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I confidently make my defense.

I have a hope in God (a hope that these men themselves accept too) that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

This is the reason I do my best to always have a clear conscience toward God and toward people.

But there are some Jews from the province of Asia who should be here before you and bring charges, if they have anything against me.

He ordered the centurion to guard Paul, but to let him have some freedom, and not to prevent any of his friends from meeting his needs.

While Paul was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, "Go away for now, and when I have an opportunity, I will send for you."

Paul said in his defense, "I have committed no offense against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar."

Paul replied, "I am standing before Caesar's judgment seat, where I should be tried. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as you also know very well.

If then I am in the wrong and have done anything that deserves death, I am not trying to escape dying, but if not one of their charges against me is true, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!"

Then, after conferring with his council, Festus replied, "You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go!"

But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this preliminary hearing I may have something to write.

So Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul held out his hand and began his defense:

"Regarding all the things I have been accused of by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

They know, because they have known me from time past, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.

But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance as a servant and witness to the things you have seen and to the things in which I will appear to you.

I have experienced help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:

As Paul was saying these things in his defense, Festus exclaimed loudly, "You have lost your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane!"

But Paul replied, "I have not lost my mind, most excellent Festus, but am speaking true and rational words.

Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar."

Since many of them had no desire to eat, Paul stood up among them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and not put out to sea from Crete, thus avoiding this damage and loss.

Therefore keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be just as I have been told.

As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day you have been in suspense and have gone without food; you have eaten nothing.

So for this reason I have asked to see you and speak with you, for I am bound with this chain because of the hope of Israel."

They replied, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor have any of the brothers come from there and reported or said anything bad about you.

For the heart of this people has become dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."'

Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles.

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.

Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know that God's kindness leads you to repentance?

For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth --

Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision?

What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,

All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one."

and the way of peace they have not known."

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants -- not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all

(as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed -- the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God's glory.

Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God's wrath.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.

Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For this is what the promise declared: "About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son."

For he says to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.

But who indeed are you -- a mere human being -- to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, "Why have you made me like this?"

Just as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah."

How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them?

But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"

But I ask, have they not heard? Yes, they have: Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!"

But what was the divine response to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal."

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God -- harshness toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience,

so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.

For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function,

And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God's appointment, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

Now receive the one who is weak in the faith, and do not have disputes over differing opinions.

The faith you have, keep to yourself before God. Blessed is the one who does not judge himself by what he approves.

For even Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written, "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."

For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

But I have written more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you, because of the grace given to me by God

in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem even as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

but as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."

But now there is nothing more to keep me in these regions, and I have for many years desired to come to you