But everyone has heard that you obey God, and that makes me very happy. I want you to be wise about what is good but not know anything about what is evil.
If anyone speaks, they should do it as someone who’s speaking God’s own words. If anyone serves, they should do it with the strength that God provides. That way God will be praised in all things through Jesus Christ. May he receive the glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
You’re also like living stones. As you come to Christ, you’re being built into a house for worship. There you will be holy priests and offer spiritual sacrifices that God will accept because of what Jesus Christ has done.
One of them, named Agabus, stood up and said through the Spirit that there would be a famine all over the world, which happened when Claudius was emperor.
But I ask, “Didn’t the people of Israel hear?” Of course they did. It is written, “Their voice has gone out into the whole earth, their words from one end of the world to the other.”
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as if we were prisoners in Christ’s victory parade. He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like perfume.
We also thank God constantly for the way you received his word when you heard it from us. You didn’t accept it as a human word, but for what it is, the word of God. And that word is truly at work in you who believe.
We should always thank God for you, brothers and sisters. That’s only right, because your faith is growing more and more and your love for one another is increasing.