Timothy Goes with Paul and Silas

¹Paul traveled on to Derbe and Lystra, where a Christian named Timothy lived. His mother, who was also a Christian, was Jewish, but his father was a Greek.

²All the believers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy.

³Paul wanted to take Timothy along with him, so he circumcised him. He did so because all the Jews who lived in those places knew that Timothy's father was Greek.

⁴As they went through the towns, they delivered to the believers the rules decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and they told them to obey those rules.

⁵So the churches were made stronger in the faith and grew in numbers every day.

In Troas: Paul's Vision

⁶They traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message in the province of Asia.

⁷When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

⁸So they traveled right on through Mysia and went to Troas.

⁹That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

¹⁰As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there.

In Philippi: the Conversion of Lydia

¹¹We left by ship from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis.

¹²From there we went inland to Philippi, a city of the first district of Macedonia; it is also a Roman colony. We spent several days there.

¹³On the Sabbath we went out of the city to the riverside, where we thought there would be a place where Jews gathered for prayer. We sat down and talked to the women who gathered there.

¹⁴One of those who heard us was Lydia from Thyatira, who was a dealer in purple cloth. She was a woman who worshiped God, and the Lord opened her mind to pay attention to what Paul was saying.

¹⁵After she and the people of her house had been baptized, she invited us, “Come and stay in my house if you have decided that I am a true believer in the Lord.” And she persuaded us to go.

In Prison at Philippi

¹⁶One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a young servant woman who had an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes.

¹⁷She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!”

¹⁸She did this for many days, until Paul became so upset that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!” The spirit went out of her that very moment.

¹⁹When her owners realized that their chance of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities in the public square.

²⁰They brought them before the Roman officials and said, “These men are Jews, and they are causing trouble in our city.

²¹They are teaching customs that are against our law; we are Roman citizens, and we cannot accept these customs or practice them.”

²²And the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be whipped.

²³After a severe beating, they were thrown into jail, and the jailer was ordered to lock them up tight.

²⁴Upon receiving this order, the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners.

²⁷The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he thought that the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself.

²⁸But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, “Don't harm yourself We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas.

³⁰Then he led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your family.”

³²Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in the house.

³³At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once.

³⁴Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house and gave them some food to eat. He and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God.

³⁵The next morning the Roman authorities sent police officers with the order, “Let those men go.”

³⁶So the jailer told Paul, “The officials have sent an order for you and Silas to be released. You may leave, then, and go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul said to the police officers, “We were not found guilty of any crime, yet they whipped us in public—and we are Roman citizens! Then they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Not at all! The Roman officials themselves must come here and let us out.”

³⁸The police officers reported these words to the Roman officials; and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid.

³⁹So they went and apologized to them; then they led them out of the prison and asked them to leave the city.

⁴⁰Paul and Silas left the prison and went to Lydia's house. There they met the believers, spoke words of encouragement to them, and left.

Love

¹I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

²I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing.

³I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned—but if I have no love, this does me no good.

⁴Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;

⁵love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;

⁶love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.

⁷Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

⁸Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.

⁹For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial;

¹⁰but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

¹¹When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways.

¹²What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete—as complete as God's knowledge of me.

¹³Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

More about Gifts from the Spirit

¹It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message.

²Those who speak in strange tongues do not speak to others but to God, because no one understands them. They are speaking secret truths by the power of the Spirit.

³But those who proclaim God's message speak to people and give them help, encouragement, and comfort.

⁴Those who speak in strange tongues help only themselves, but those who proclaim God's message help the whole church.

⁵I would like for all of you to speak in strange tongues; but I would rather that you had the gift of proclaiming God's message. For the person who proclaims God's message is of greater value than the one who speaks in strange tongues—unless there is someone present who can explain what is said, so that the whole church may be helped.

⁶So when I come to you, my friends, what use will I be to you if I speak in strange tongues? Not a bit, unless I bring you some revelation from God or some knowledge or some inspired message or some teaching.

⁷Take such lifeless musical instruments as the flute or the harp—how will anyone know the tune that is being played unless the notes are sounded distinctly?

⁸And if the one who plays the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle?

⁹In the same way, how will anyone understand what you are talking about if your message given in strange tongues is not clear? Your words will vanish in the air!

¹⁰There are many different languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.

¹¹But if I do not know the language being spoken, those who use it will be foreigners to me and I will be a foreigner to them.

¹²Since you are eager to have the gifts of the Spirit, you must try above everything else to make greater use of those which help to build up the church.

¹³The person who speaks in strange tongues, then, must pray for the gift to explain what is said.

¹⁴For if I pray in this way, my spirit prays indeed, but my mind has no part in it.

¹⁵What should I do, then? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray also with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will sing also with my mind.

¹⁶When you give thanks to God in spirit only, how can ordinary people taking part in the meeting say “Amen” to your prayer of thanksgiving? They have no way of knowing what you are saying.

¹⁷Even if your prayer of thanks to God is quite good, other people are not helped at all.

¹⁸I thank God that I speak in strange tongues much more than any of you.

¹⁹But in church worship I would rather speak five words that can be understood, in order to teach others, than speak thousands of words in strange tongues.

²⁰Do not be like children in your thinking, my friends; be children so far as evil is concerned, but be grown up in your thinking.

²¹In the Scriptures it is written, “By means of people speaking strange languages I will speak to my people, says the Lord. I will speak through lips of foreigners, but even then my people will not listen to me.”

²²So then, the gift of speaking in strange tongues is proof for unbelievers, not for believers, while the gift of proclaiming God's message is proof for believers, not for unbelievers.

²³If, then, the whole church meets together and everyone starts speaking in strange tongues—and if some ordinary people or unbelievers come in, won't they say that you are all crazy?

²⁴But if everyone is proclaiming God's message when some unbelievers or ordinary people come in, they will be convinced of their sin by what they hear. They will be judged by all they hear,

²⁵their secret thoughts will be brought into the open, and they will bow down and worship God, confessing, “Truly God is here among you!”

Order in the Church

²⁶This is what I mean, my friends. When you meet for worship, one person has a hymn, another a teaching, another a revelation from God, another a message in strange tongues, and still another the explanation of what is said. Everything must be of help to the church.

²⁷If someone is going to speak in strange tongues, two or three at the most should speak, one after the other, and someone else must explain what is being said.

²⁸But if no one is there who can explain, then the one who speaks in strange tongues must be quiet and speak only to himself and to God.

²⁹Two or three who are given God's message should speak, while the others are to judge what they say.

³⁰But if someone sitting in the meeting receives a message from God, the one who is speaking should stop.

³¹All of you may proclaim God's message, one by one, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged.

³²The gift of proclaiming God's message should be under the speaker's control,

³³because God does not want us to be in disorder but in harmony and peace. As in all the churches of God's people,

³⁴the women should keep quiet in the meetings. They are not allowed to speak; as the Jewish Law says, they must not be in charge.

³⁵If they want to find out about something, they should ask their husbands at home. It is a disgraceful thing for a woman to speak in a church meeting.

³⁶Or could it be that the word of God came from you? Or are you the only ones to whom it came?

³⁷If anyone supposes he is God's messenger or has a spiritual gift, he must realize that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.

³⁸But if he does not pay attention to this, pay no attention to him.

³⁹So then, my friends, set your heart on proclaiming God's message, but do not forbid the speaking in strange tongues.

⁴⁰Everything must be done in a proper and orderly way.

¹³You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.

¹⁴Always obey the Lord and you will be happy. If you are stubborn, you will be ruined.

¹⁵Poor people are helpless against a wicked ruler; he is as dangerous as a growling lion or a prowling bear.