They said, “Cornelius the centurion, ¹  a righteous ²  and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, ³  was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear a message ⁴  from you.”

with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, ¹  that ²  God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He ³  went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, ⁴  because God was with him. ⁵ 

But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus ¹  from the dead, never ²  again to be ³  in a state of decay, God ⁴  has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you ⁵  the holy and trustworthy promises ⁶  made to David.’ ⁷ 

Watch out for ¹  yourselves and for all the flock of which ²  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ³  to shepherd the church of God ⁴  that he obtained ⁵  with the blood of his own Son. ⁶ 

shouting, “Men of Israel, ¹  help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, ²  and this sanctuary! ³  Furthermore ⁴  he has brought Greeks into the inner courts of the temple ⁵  and made this holy place ritually unclean!” ⁶ 

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ¹  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ²  – which is your reasonable service.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, ¹  so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve ¹  the gospel of God ²  like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, ³  sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, ¹  whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

So I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

And when ¹  you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ ²  – you were marked with the seal ³  of the promised Holy Spirit, ⁴ 

in that ¹  our gospel did not come to you merely in words, ²  but in power and in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction (surely you recall the character we displayed when we came among you to help you). ³ 

Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the one who saved us ¹  and called us with a holy calling, not based on ²  our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began, ³ 

he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured ¹  eternal redemption.

How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ¹  the Son of God, and profanes ²  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ³  and insults the Spirit of grace?

you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer ¹  spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues ¹  of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.