I truly expect and hope that I won’t be ashamed in any way, but that I’ll be brave enough so that now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether I live or die.
That’s why I’m suffering the way I am. But I’m not ashamed, because I know the one I’ve believed in and I’m certain that he’s able to protect what I’ve given him. I can trust him with it until the day he returns.
You also came to belong to Christ when you heard the message of truth, the good news about how you could be saved. When you believed, God stamped you with an official mark, the Holy Spirit that he promised.
Jesus has been given a place of honor at the right hand of God, and he has received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father. It is Jesus who has poured out what you now see and hear.
He said: “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Holy Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams.
May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father encourage your hearts and make you strong in every good thing that you do and say. God loved us and by his grace he has given us good hope and encouragement that will last forever.
God said, “Let light shine out of darkness.” And he made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light we needed to know God’s glory, which is shown in the face of Christ.
None of our faces are covered with a veil. All of us can see and contemplate the Lord’s glory. So we’re being changed to become more and more glorious like him. All this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
They began to praise God by speaking in unknown languages. When the Jewish believers who’d come with Peter heard this, they were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit was being poured out even on Gentiles. Peter said,
As it is written, “Look! I’m laying a stone in Zion that will cause people to trip. It’s a rock that will make them fall. The one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
If anyone refuses to accept this teaching, they’re not rejecting a human being. They’re rejecting God, the very same God who gives you his Holy Spirit.