that has come to you. In the same way, the good news is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.
But now it has been made known to all the Gentiles through the writings of the prophets, as the eternal God has commanded. Through the revelation of this mystery, the Gentiles are starting to obey God by trusting in him.
Through him we received grace to become apostles to the Gentiles and through that grace to bring them to obedience to God by trusting in Jesus. We do this to bring glory to him.
There they strengthened the disciples, encouraging them to remain faithful to what they’d been taught. “We have to go through many hard times to enter the kingdom of God,” they explained.
By faith Abraham obeyed God and went to the place he would later receive as his own. He did that even though he didn’t know where he was going when God told him to start on his way there.
When they heard this, they praised God. But then they said to Paul, “Brother, you see that thousands of Jews have become believers. All of them try very hard to obey the law.
However, many did believe in him, even among the Jewish leaders. But because of the Pharisees, they wouldn’t admit openly that they believed. They were afraid that they’d be thrown out of the synagogue.
Then Simeon blessed them. He said to Mary, Jesus’ mother, “God has sent this child to cause many people in Israel to fall and to rise. Many will speak against him,
In those days when the number of disciples was growing, the Greek-speaking Jews complained about the Jews who were native to Judea. They said that their own widows weren’t getting their fair share of the food that was given out each day to those in need.
Dear friends, I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share. But I felt that I had to write and urge you to stand up for the faith that God’s holy people have been trusted with once and for all time.