I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, ¹  but take courage ²  – I have conquered the world.” ³ 

When the meeting of the synagogue ¹  had broken up, ²  many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes ³  followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading ⁴  them ⁵  to continue ⁶  in the grace of God.

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.

When Apollos ¹  wanted to cross over to Achaia, ²  the brothers encouraged ³  him ⁴  and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he ⁵  assisted greatly those who had believed by grace,

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.”

And do this ¹  because we know ²  the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers.

when I go to Spain. For I hope to visit you when I pass through and that you will help me ¹  on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Some of you once lived this way. ¹  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ²  and by the Spirit of our God.

And I wrote this very thing to you, ¹  so that when I came ²  I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours.

But as you excel ¹  in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness and in the love from us that is in you ²  – make sure that you excel ³  in this act of kindness ⁴  too.

You are looking at outward appearances. ¹  If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should reflect on this again: Just as he himself belongs to Christ, so too do we.

For though ¹  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ²  your morale ³  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

For from you the message of the Lord ¹  has echoed forth not just in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place reports of your faith in God have spread, ²  so that we do not need to say anything.

But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters ¹  loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning ²  for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that ¹  in me as the worst, ²  Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life.

For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in ¹  with those who heard it in faith. ² 

Therefore we must progress beyond ¹  the elementary ²  instructions about Christ ³  and move on ⁴  to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God,

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. ¹  Let them do this ²  with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.

And we have come to know and to believe ¹  the love that God has in us. ²  God is love, and the one who resides ³  in love resides in God, and God resides in him.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.) ¹