Saul Persecutes the Church

¹And Saul approved of his murder. That very day the church in Jerusalem began to suffer cruel persecution. All the believers, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria.

²Some devout men buried Stephen, mourning for him with loud cries.

³But Saul tried to destroy the church; going from house to house, he dragged out the believers, both men and women, and threw them into jail.

The Gospel Is Preached in Samaria

⁴The believers who were scattered went everywhere, preaching the message.

⁵Philip went to the principal city in Samaria and preached the Messiah to the people there.

⁶The crowds paid close attention to what Philip said, as they listened to him and saw the miracles that he performed.

⁷Evil spirits came out from many people with a loud cry, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed.

⁸So there was great joy in that city.

⁹A man named Simon lived there, who for some time had astounded the Samaritans with his magic. He claimed that he was someone great,

¹⁰and everyone in the city, from all classes of society, paid close attention to him. “He is that power of God known as ‘The Great Power,’” they said.

¹¹They paid this attention to him because for such a long time he had astonished them with his magic.

¹²But when they believed Philip's message about the good news of the Kingdom of God and about Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

¹³Simon himself also believed; and after being baptized, he stayed close to Philip and was astounded when he saw the great wonders and miracles that were being performed.

¹⁴The apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had received the word of God, so they sent Peter and John to them.

¹⁵When they arrived, they prayed for the believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶For the Holy Spirit had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸Simon saw that the Spirit had been given to the believers when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered money to Peter and John,

¹⁹and said, “Give this power to me too, so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰But Peter answered him, “May you and your money go to hell, for thinking that you can buy God's gift with money!

²¹You have no part or share in our work, because your heart is not right in God's sight.

²²Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this.

²³For I see that you are full of bitter envy and are a prisoner of sin.”

²⁴Simon said to Peter and John, “Please pray to the Lord for me, so that none of these things you spoke of will happen to me.”

²⁵After they had given their testimony and proclaimed the Lord's message, Peter and John went back to Jerusalem. On their way they preached the Good News in many villages of Samaria.

Philip and the Ethiopian Official

²⁶An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get ready and go south to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This road is not used nowadays.)

^27-28So Philip got ready and went. Now an Ethiopian eunuch, who was an important official in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia, was on his way home. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was going back home in his carriage. As he rode along, he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that carriage and stay close to it.”

³⁰Philip ran over and heard him reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. He asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹The official replied, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit in the carriage with him.

³²The passage of scripture which he was reading was this: “He was like a sheep that is taken to be slaughtered, like a lamb that makes no sound when its wool is cut off. He did not say a word.

³³He was humiliated, and justice was denied him. No one will be able to tell about his descendants, because his life on earth has come to an end.”

³⁴The official asked Philip, “Tell me, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?”

³⁵Then Philip began to speak; starting from this passage of scripture, he told him the Good News about Jesus.

³⁶As they traveled down the road, they came to a place where there was some water, and the official said, “Here is some water. What is to keep me from being baptized?”

³⁷[And Philip said: If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answering, said: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.] (Vulgate/DR Patch)

³⁸The official ordered the carriage to stop, and both Philip and the official went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The official did not see him again, but continued on his way, full of joy.

⁴⁰Philip found himself in Azotus; he went on to Caesarea, and on the way he preached the Good News in every town.

Duties toward State Authorities

¹Everyone must obey state authorities, because no authority exists without God's permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God.

²Whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered; and anyone who does so will bring judgment on himself.

³For rulers are not to be feared by those who do good, but by those who do evil. Would you like to be unafraid of those in authority? Then do what is good, and they will praise you,

⁴because they are God's servants working for your own good. But if you do evil, then be afraid of them, because their power to punish is real. They are God's servants and carry out God's punishment on those who do evil.

⁵For this reason you must obey the authorities—not just because of God's punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.

⁶That is also why you pay taxes, because the authorities are working for God when they fulfill their duties.

⁷Pay, then, what you owe them; pay them your personal and property taxes, and show respect and honor for them all.

Duties toward One Another

⁸Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.

⁹The commandments, “Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else”—all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

¹⁰If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

¹¹You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed.

¹²The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light.

¹³Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day—no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy.

¹⁴But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

Do Not Judge Others

¹Welcome those who are weak in faith, but do not argue with them about their personal opinions.

²Some people's faith allows them to eat anything, but the person who is weak in the faith eats only vegetables.

³The person who will eat anything is not to despise the one who doesn't; while the one who eats only vegetables is not to pass judgment on the one who will eat anything; for God has accepted that person.

⁴Who are you to judge the servants of someone else? It is their own Master who will decide whether they succeed or fail. And they will succeed, because the Lord is able to make them succeed.

⁵Some people think that a certain day is more important than other days, while others think that all days are the same. We each should firmly make up our own minds.

⁶Those who think highly of a certain day do so in honor of the Lord; those who will eat anything do so in honor of the Lord, because they give thanks to God for the food. Those who refuse to eat certain things do so in honor of the Lord, and they give thanks to God.

⁷We do not live for ourselves only, and we do not die for ourselves only.

⁸If we live, it is for the Lord that we live, and if we die, it is for the Lord that we die. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

⁹For Christ died and rose to life in order to be the Lord of the living and of the dead.

¹⁰You then, who eat only vegetables—why do you pass judgment on others? And you who eat anything—why do you despise other believers? All of us will stand before God to be judged by him.

¹¹For the scripture says, “As surely as I am the living God, says the Lord, everyone will kneel before me, and everyone will confess that I am God.”

¹²Every one of us, then, will have to give an account to God.

Do Not Make Others Fall

¹³So then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make others stumble or fall into sin.

¹⁴My union with the Lord Jesus makes me certain that no food is of itself ritually unclean; but if you believe that some food is unclean, then it becomes unclean for you.

¹⁵If you hurt others because of something you eat, then you are no longer acting from love. Do not let the food that you eat ruin the person for whom Christ died!

¹⁶Do not let what you regard as good get a bad name.

¹⁷For God's Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of the righteousness, peace, and joy which the Holy Spirit gives.

¹⁸And when you serve Christ in this way, you please God and are approved by others.

¹⁹So then, we must always aim at those things that bring peace and that help strengthen one another.

²⁰Do not, because of food, destroy what God has done. All foods may be eaten, but it is wrong to eat anything that will cause someone else to fall into sin.

²¹The right thing to do is to keep from eating meat, drinking wine, or doing anything else that will make other believers fall.

²²Keep what you believe about this matter, then, between yourself and God. Happy are those who do not feel guilty when they do something they judge is right!

²³But if they have doubts about what they eat, God condemns them when they eat it, because their action is not based on faith. And anything that is not based on faith is sin.

¹⁵A nagging wife is like water going drip-drip-drip on a rainy day.

¹⁶How can you keep her quiet? Have you ever tried to stop the wind or ever tried to hold a handful of oil?

¹⁷People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron.