But God chose you to be his own people, his royal priests, a holy nation, his special treasure. You’re all these things so that you can tell everyone how wonderful God is. He brought you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
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.
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.
I don’t dare to speak about anything except what Christ has done through me. He has been leading the Gentiles to obey God through what I have said and done,
When they heard this, they didn’t question or criticize Peter any longer. Instead, they praised God and said, “So then, God has allowed even Gentiles to turn away from their sins and find life!”
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.
Wives, follow the lead of your own husbands. If any of them don’t believe God’s word, they may be won over to Christ without words by seeing how their wives live.
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.
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.
The brothers and sisters there had heard we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God for them, and they encouraged him.
Brothers and sisters, if I came to you and spoke in an unknown language, what good would that do? If I really wanted to help you, I’d come with a revelation or insight or prophecy or teaching.