If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don’t we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right; instead, we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ.
‘But, so we won’t offend them, go to the sea, cast in a fish hook, and take the first fish that you catch. When you open its mouth you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to them for me and you.’
Indeed, this is our boast: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially towards you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom but by God’s grace.
‘But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away #– #it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung round his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.
Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin #– #the very one all of Asia and the world worship.’