Acts 9:13Plain English VersionBut Ananias said, “But sir, people have told me about that man Saul. He’s a properly cheeky man. He hurt your people in Jerusalem, and he did a lot of bad things to them. See the chapter |
At that time, Saul was still making trouble for Jesus’s followers. He was telling them, “I’m going to hurt you and kill you.” He went to the big boss of the Jewish ceremonies and said, “I want to go to the city called Damascus and grab the followers of Jesus there. Will you write letters for me to take to the people in the Jewish meeting houses there? Tell them that you want me to grab anyone that belongs to that mob called the Jesus Way mob. I will grab those men and women, and tie them up, and I will bring them back to Jerusalem for you to punish them.” So that big boss wrote letters like that, and he gave them to Saul to take to Damascus.
All the Jews that heard him were really shocked. They said, “Wow, this man has really changed. He’s the man that really hurt the people in Jerusalem that followed Jesus. And he came here to grab the people here that say they follow Jesus. He was going to tie them up with chains and take them back to the bosses of our ceremonies in Jerusalem.”
All right, now I want to talk to you about something else. I will answer the question you asked me about the money that you want to give to God’s people in Jerusalem. You know, I talked to the people in the churches in Galatia country, and I told them how to give money to God’s people in Jerusalem, and I want you to do it the same way.
I am Paul, and this letter is from me, and it is from Timothy too, because he is helping me write it. We work all the time for Jesus Christ. We are sending this letter to all God’s special people at Philippi, you people that belong to Jesus Christ. We are writing to you Christian leaders, and to you church helpers, and to all you Christians.
You are my very good friends. I really want to tell you about how God has saved us all, but instead I reckon I have to write about something else. You see, we are God’s own people, and he gave us a true message that he will not change. You have to try really hard to keep God’s true message safe. You can’t let anyone stop you doing what that message says.