A ¹  woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth ²  from the city of Thyatira, ³  a God-fearing woman, listened to us. ⁴  The Lord opened her heart to respond ⁵  to what Paul was saying.

For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, ¹  I even found an altar with this inscription: ²  ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, ³  this I proclaim to you.

Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking ¹  my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, ²  but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter, having decided ¹  that they should avoid ²  meat that has been sacrificed to idols ³  and blood and what has been strangled ⁴  and sexual immorality.”

Then the commanding officer ¹  came up and arrested ²  him and ordered him to be tied up with two chains; ³  he ⁴  then asked who he was and what ⁵  he had done.

So I asked, ¹  ‘What should I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up ²  and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything ³  that you have been designated ⁴  to do.’

There was a great commotion, ¹  and some experts in the law ²  from the party of the Pharisees stood up ³  and protested strongly, ⁴  “We find nothing wrong ⁵  with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

I have experienced ¹  help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except ²  what the prophets and Moses said ³  was going to happen:

The next day we put in ¹  at Sidon, ²  and Julius, treating Paul kindly, ³  allowed him to go to his friends so they could provide him with what he needed. ⁴ 

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people ¹  are without excuse.

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ¹  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ²  (I am speaking in human terms.) ³ 

But now we have been released from the law, because we have died ¹  to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. ² 

For God achieved what the law could not do because ¹  it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

But who indeed are you – a mere human being ¹  – to talk back to God? ²  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ³ 

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

For if your brother or sister ¹  is distressed because of what you eat, ²  you are no longer walking in love. ³  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean, ¹  it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat.

For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience ¹  of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

each builder’s ¹  work will be plainly seen, for the Day ²  will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire ³  will test what kind of work each has done.