But He turned and said to Peter, »Get behind me, Adversary; you are a hindrance to me, because your thoughts are not God's thoughts, but men's.«
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will teach you everything, and will bring to your memories all that I have said to you.
»When the Advocate is come whom I will send to you from the Father's presence –the Spirit of Truth who comes forth from the Father's presence– He will be a witness concerning me.«
Among our hearers was one named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods. She belonged to the city of Thyateira, and was a worshipper of the true God. The Lord opened her heart, so that she gave attention to what Paul was saying.
A few of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him. Some of them asked, »What has this beggarly babbler to say?«»His business,« said others, »seems to be to cry up some foreign gods.« This was because he had been telling the Good News of Jesus and the Resurrection.
But they quarrelled with him about certain matters connected with their own religion, and about one Jesus who had died, but –so Paul persistently maintained– is now alive.
For after the world by its wisdom –as God in His wisdom had ordained– had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it.
Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser than men's wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God is mightier than men's might.
But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely given to us by God.
And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains within you, and there is no need for any one to teach you. But since His anointing gives you instruction in all things –and is true and is no falsehood– you are continuing in union with Him even as it has taught you to do.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we know the true One, and are in union with the true One–that is, we are in union with His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the Life of the Ages.