Paul in Ephesus

¹While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the province and arrived in Ephesus. There he found some disciples

²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit,” they answered.

³“Well, then, what kind of baptism did you receive?” Paul asked. “The baptism of John,” they answered.

⁴Paul said, “The baptism of John was for those who turned from their sins; and he told the people of Israel to believe in the one who was coming after him—that is, in Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶Paul placed his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them; they spoke in strange tongues and also proclaimed God's message.

⁷They were about twelve men in all.

⁸Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly with the people, holding discussions with them and trying to convince them about the Kingdom of God.

⁹But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This went on for two years, so that all the people who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹God was performing unusual miracles through Paul.

¹²Even handkerchiefs and aprons he had used were taken to the sick, and their diseases were driven away, and the evil spirits would go out of them.

¹³Some Jews who traveled around and drove out evil spirits also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to do this. They said to the evil spirits, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.”

¹⁴Seven brothers, who were the sons of a Jewish High Priest named Sceva, were doing this.

¹⁵But the evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul; but you—who are you?”

¹⁶The man who had the evil spirit in him attacked them with such violence that he overpowered them all. They ran away from his house, wounded and with their clothes torn off.

¹⁷All the Jews and Gentiles who lived in Ephesus heard about this; they were all filled with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was given greater honor.

¹⁸Many of the believers came, publicly admitting and revealing what they had done.

¹⁹Many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in public. They added up the price of the books, and the total came to fifty thousand silver coins.

²⁰In this powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing stronger.

The Riot in Ephesus

²¹After these things had happened, Paul made up his mind to travel through Macedonia and Achaia and go on to Jerusalem. “After I go there,” he said, “I must also see Rome.”

²²So he sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, to Macedonia, while he spent more time in the province of Asia.

²³It was at this time that there was serious trouble in Ephesus because of the Way of the Lord.

²⁴A certain silversmith named Demetrius made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis, and his business brought a great deal of profit to the workers.

²⁵So he called them all together with others whose work was like theirs and said to them, “Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this work.

²⁶Now, you can see and hear for yourselves what this fellow Paul is doing. He says that hand-made gods are not gods at all, and he has succeeded in convincing many people, both here in Ephesus and in nearly the whole province of Asia.

²⁷There is the danger, then, that this business of ours will get a bad name. Not only that, but there is also the danger that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will come to mean nothing and that her greatness will be destroyed—the goddess worshiped by everyone in Asia and in all the world!”

²⁸As the crowd heard these words, they became furious and started shouting, “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!”

²⁹The uproar spread throughout the whole city. The mob grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, two Macedonians who were traveling with Paul, and rushed with them to the theater.

³⁰Paul himself wanted to go before the crowd, but the believers would not let him.

³¹Some of the provincial authorities, who were his friends, also sent him a message begging him not to show himself in the theater.

³²Meanwhile the whole meeting was in an uproar: some people were shouting one thing, others were shouting something else, because most of them did not even know why they had come together.

³³Some of the people concluded that Alexander was responsible, since the Jews made him go up to the front. Then Alexander motioned with his hand for the people to be silent, and he tried to make a speech of defense.

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted together the same thing for two hours: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!”

³⁵At last the city clerk was able to calm the crowd. “Fellow Ephesians!” he said. “Everyone knows that the city of Ephesus is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of the sacred stone that fell down from heaven.

³⁶Nobody can deny these things. So then, you must calm down and not do anything reckless.

³⁷You have brought these men here even though they have not robbed temples or said evil things about our goddess.

³⁸If Demetrius and his workers have an accusation against anyone, we have the authorities and the regular days for court; charges can be made there.

³⁹But if there is something more that you want, it will have to be settled in a legal meeting of citizens.

⁴⁰For after what has happened today, there is the danger that we will be accused of a riot. There is no excuse for all this uproar, and we would not be able to give a good reason for it.”

⁴¹After saying this, he dismissed the meeting.

¹From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and from our brother Timothy— To the church of God in Corinth, and to all God's people throughout Achaia:

²May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Paul Gives Thanks to God

³Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes!

⁴He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

⁵Just as we have a share in Christ's many sufferings, so also through Christ we share in God's great help.

⁶If we suffer, it is for your help and salvation; if we are helped, then you too are helped and given the strength to endure with patience the same sufferings that we also endure.

⁷So our hope in you is never shaken; we know that just as you share in our sufferings, you also share in the help we receive.

⁸We want to remind you, friends, of the trouble we had in the province of Asia. The burdens laid upon us were so great and so heavy that we gave up all hope of staying alive.

⁹We felt that the death sentence had been passed on us. But this happened so that we should rely, not on ourselves, but only on God, who raises the dead.

¹⁰From such terrible dangers of death he saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in him that he will save us again,

¹¹as you help us by means of your prayers for us. So it will be that the many prayers for us will be answered, and God will bless us; and many will raise their voices to him in thanksgiving for us.

The Change in Paul's Plans

¹²We are proud that our conscience assures us that our lives in this world, and especially our relations with you, have been ruled by God-given frankness and sincerity, by the power of God's grace and not by human wisdom.

^13-14We write to you only what you can read and understand. But even though you now understand us only in part, I hope that you will come to understand us completely, so that in the Day of our Lord Jesus you can be as proud of us as we shall be of you.

¹⁵I was so sure of all this that I made plans at first to visit you, in order that you might be blessed twice.

¹⁶For I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and again on my way back, in order to get help from you for my trip to Judea.

¹⁷In planning this, did I appear fickle? When I make my plans, do I make them from selfish motives, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?

¹⁸As surely as God speaks the truth, my promise to you was not a “Yes” and a “No.”

¹⁹For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was preached among you by Silas, Timothy, and myself, is not one who is “Yes” and “No.” On the contrary, he is God's “Yes”;

²⁰for it is he who is the “Yes” to all of God's promises. This is why through Jesus Christ our “Amen” is said to the glory of God.

²¹It is God himself who makes us, together with you, sure of our life in union with Christ; it is God himself who has set us apart,

²²who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

²³I call God as my witness—he knows my heart! It was in order to spare you that I decided not to go to Corinth.

²⁴We are not trying to dictate to you what you must believe; we know that you stand firm in the faith. Instead, we are working with you for your own happiness.

¹So I made up my mind not to come to you again to make you sad.

²For if I were to make you sad, who would be left to cheer me up? Only the very persons I had made sad.

³That is why I wrote that letter to you—I did not want to come to you and be made sad by the very people who should make me glad. For I am convinced that when I am happy, then all of you are happy too.

⁴I wrote you with a greatly troubled and distressed heart and with many tears; my purpose was not to make you sad, but to make you realize how much I love you all.

Forgiveness for the Offender

⁵Now, if anyone has made somebody sad, he has not done it to me but to all of you—in part, at least. (I say this because I do not want to be too hard on him.)

⁶It is enough that this person has been punished in this way by most of you.

⁷Now, however, you should forgive him and encourage him, in order to keep him from becoming so sad as to give up completely.

⁸And so I beg you to let him know that you really do love him.

⁹I wrote you that letter because I wanted to find out how well you had stood the test and whether you are always ready to obey my instructions.

¹⁰When you forgive people for what they have done, I forgive them too. For when I forgive—if, indeed, I need to forgive anything—I do it in Christ's presence because of you,

¹¹in order to keep Satan from getting the upper hand over us; for we know what his plans are.

Paul's Anxiety in Troas

¹²When I arrived in Troas to preach the Good News about Christ, I found that the Lord had opened the way for the work there.

¹³But I was deeply worried, because I could not find our brother Titus. So I said good-bye to the people there and went on to Macedonia.

Victory through Christ

¹⁴But thanks be to God! For in union with Christ we are always led by God as prisoners in Christ's victory procession. God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance.

¹⁵For we are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ to God, which spreads among those who are being saved and those who are being lost.

¹⁶For those who are being lost, it is a deadly stench that kills; but for those who are being saved, it is a fragrance that brings life. Who, then, is capable for such a task?

¹⁷We are not like so many others, who handle God's message as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in his presence, as servants of Christ.

²²Selfish people are in such a hurry to get rich that they do not know when poverty is about to strike.

²³Correct someone, and afterward he will appreciate it more than flattery.

²⁴Anyone who thinks it isn't wrong to steal from his parents is no better than a common thief.