so that he ¹  may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. ² 

And after ¹  you have read this letter, have it read ²  to the church of Laodicea. In turn, read the letter from Laodicea ³  as well.

and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. ¹  So ²  for a whole year Barnabas and Saul ³  met with the church and taught a significant number of people. ⁴  Now it was in Antioch ⁵  that the disciples were first called Christians. ⁶ 

Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided ¹  to send men chosen from among them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, ²  leaders among the brothers, to Antioch ³  with Paul and Barnabas.

For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, ¹  of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews,

For in the first place, when you come together as a church I hear there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.

So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and unbelievers or uninformed people enter, will they not say that you have lost your minds?

And Saul agreed completely with killing ¹  him.Now on that day a great ²  persecution began ³  against the church in Jerusalem, ⁴  and all ⁵  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ⁶  of Judea and Samaria.

to the church of God that is in Corinth, ¹  to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. ² 

For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my dear and faithful son in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Christ, ¹  as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Nevertheless, ¹  as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each person, so must he live. I give this sort of direction in all the churches.

In addition, ¹  this brother ²  has also been chosen by the churches as our traveling companion as we administer this generous gift ³  to the glory of the Lord himself and to show our readiness to help. ⁴ 

And as you Philippians know, at the beginning of my gospel ministry, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in this matter of giving and receiving except you alone.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

saying: “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches – to Ephesus, ¹  Smyrna, ²  Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

Furthermore, I will strike her followers ¹  with a deadly disease, ²  and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay ³  each one of you ⁴  what your deeds deserve. ⁵ 

“To ¹  the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: ²  “This is the solemn pronouncement of ³  the one who holds ⁴  the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation ⁵  that you are alive, but ⁶  in reality ⁷  you are dead.

“To ¹  the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the following: ²  “This is the solemn pronouncement of ³  the Holy One, the True One, who holds the key of David, who opens doors ⁴  no one can shut, and shuts doors ⁵  no one can open:

Now the church is ¹  his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. ² 

Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: ¹  Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, ²  Lucius the Cyrenian, ³  Manaen (a close friend of Herod ⁴  the tetrarch ⁵  from childhood ⁶ ) and Saul.