Ananias and Sapphira

¹But there was a man named Ananias, who with his wife Sapphira sold some property that belonged to them.

²But with his wife's agreement he kept part of the money for himself and turned the rest over to the apostles.

³Peter said to him, “Ananias, why did you let Satan take control of you and make you lie to the Holy Spirit by keeping part of the money you received for the property?

⁴Before you sold the property, it belonged to you; and after you sold it, the money was yours. Why, then, did you decide to do such a thing? You have not lied to people—you have lied to God!”

⁵As soon as Ananias heard this, he fell down dead; and all who heard about it were terrified.

⁶The young men came in, wrapped up his body, carried him out, and buried him.

⁷About three hours later his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.

⁸Peter asked her, “Tell me, was this the full amount you and your husband received for your property?” “Yes,” she answered, “the full amount.”

⁹So Peter said to her, “Why did you and your husband decide to put the Lord's Spirit to the test? The men who buried your husband are at the door right now, and they will carry you out too!”

¹⁰At once she fell down at his feet and died. The young men came in and saw that she was dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹The whole church and all the others who heard of this were terrified.

Miracles and Wonders

¹²Many miracles and wonders were being performed among the people by the apostles. All the believers met together in Solomon's Porch.

¹³Nobody outside the group dared join them, even though the people spoke highly of them.

¹⁴But more and more people were added to the group—a crowd of men and women who believed in the Lord.

¹⁵As a result of what the apostles were doing, sick people were carried out into the streets and placed on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

¹⁶And crowds of people came in from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing those who were sick or who had evil spirits in them; and they were all healed.

The Apostles Are Persecuted

¹⁷Then the High Priest and all his companions, members of the local party of the Sadducees, became extremely jealous of the apostles; so they decided to take action.

¹⁸They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

¹⁹But that night an angel of the Lord opened the prison gates, led the apostles out, and said to them,

²⁰“Go and stand in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new life.”

²¹The apostles obeyed, and at dawn they entered the Temple and started teaching. The High Priest and his companions called together all the Jewish elders for a full meeting of the Council; then they sent orders to the prison to have the apostles brought before them.

²²But when the officials arrived, they did not find the apostles in prison, so they returned to the Council and reported,

²³“When we arrived at the jail, we found it locked up tight and all the guards on watch at the gates; but when we opened the gates, we found no one inside!”

²⁴When the chief priests and the officer in charge of the Temple guards heard this, they wondered what had happened to the apostles.

²⁵Then a man came in and said to them, “Listen! The men you put in prison are in the Temple teaching the people!”

²⁶So the officer went off with his men and brought the apostles back. They did not use force, however, because they were afraid that the people might stone them.

²⁷They brought the apostles in, made them stand before the Council, and the High Priest questioned them.

²⁸“We gave you strict orders not to teach in the name of this man,” he said; “but see what you have done! You have spread your teaching all over Jerusalem, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”

²⁹Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God, not men.

³⁰The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from death, after you had killed him by nailing him to a cross.

³¹God raised him to his right side as Leader and Savior, to give the people of Israel the opportunity to repent and have their sins forgiven.

³²We are witnesses to these things—we and the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him.”

³³When the members of the Council heard this, they were so furious that they wanted to have the apostles put to death.

³⁴But one of them, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was a teacher of the Law and was highly respected by all the people, stood up in the Council. He ordered the apostles to be taken out for a while,

³⁵and then he said to the Council, “Fellow Israelites, be careful what you do to these men.

³⁶You remember that Theudas appeared some time ago, claiming to be somebody great, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed, all his followers were scattered, and his movement died out.

³⁷After that, Judas the Galilean appeared during the time of the census; he drew a crowd after him, but he also was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

³⁸And so in this case, I tell you, do not take any action against these men. Leave them alone! If what they have planned and done is of human origin, it will disappear,

³⁹but if it comes from God, you cannot possibly defeat them. You could find yourselves fighting against God!” The Council followed Gamaliel's advice.

⁴⁰They called the apostles in, had them whipped, and ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus; and then they set them free.

⁴¹As the apostles left the Council, they were happy, because God had considered them worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of Jesus.

⁴²And every day in the Temple and in people's homes they continued to teach and preach the Good News about Jesus the Messiah.

Life in the Spirit

¹There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.

²For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death.

³What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin.

⁴God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.

⁵Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants.

⁶To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace.

⁷And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it.

⁸Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.

⁹But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to—if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

¹⁰But if Christ lives in you, the Spirit is life for you because you have been put right with God, even though your bodies are going to die because of sin.

¹¹If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

¹²So then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to.

¹³For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

¹⁴Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children.

¹⁵For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!”

¹⁶God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.

¹⁷Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.

The Future Glory

¹⁸I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

¹⁹All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children.

²⁰For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope

²¹that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.

²³But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free.

²⁴For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who of us hopes for something we see?

²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.

²⁷And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.

²⁸We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.

²⁹Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.

³⁰And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

God's Love in Christ Jesus

³¹In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things?

³³Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!

³⁴Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us!

³⁵Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death?

³⁶As the scripture says, “For your sake we are in danger of death at all times; we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered.”

³⁷No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!

³⁸For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future,

³⁹neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁷When you are full, you will refuse honey, but when you are hungry, even bitter food tastes sweet.

⁸Anyone away from home is like a bird away from its nest.

⁹Perfume and fragrant oils make you feel happier, but trouble shatters your peace of mind.