Acts 17

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.

¹⁶For even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs again and again.

⁴Paul was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

¹⁰because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds.

⁴Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks alike.

²⁰Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, “He is the Son of God.”

¹⁸“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

¹⁰As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

¹⁶Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read,

⁵When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. And John was with them as their helper.

²⁸For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

²²But Saul was empowered all the more, and he confounded the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

³²They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

⁵because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with great conviction—just as you know we lived among you for your sake.

⁶And you became imitators of us and of the Lord when you welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit, in spite of your great suffering.

¹⁸But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer.

³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

⁴that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

¹²As a result, many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men.

⁴³After the synagogue was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴The people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews, and others with the apostles.

²²Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to select men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, two leaders among the brothers,

⁵⁰The Jews, however, incited the religious women of prominence and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

⁵And not only did they do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, through the will of God.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds.

²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

¹⁴For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews,

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

²¹Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen.

⁵We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

¹⁹When the girl’s owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.

²⁰They brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into turmoil

²²But we consider your views worth hearing, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.”

⁵But they kept insisting, “He stirs up the people all over Judea with His teaching. He began in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

²⁸crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

¹²While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews coordinated an attack on Paul and brought him before the judgment seat.

¹³“This man is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law,” they said.

²And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar, and proclaiming Himself to be Christ, a King.”

¹²From then on, Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar.”

²¹by promoting customs that are unlawful for us Romans to adopt or practice.”

¹²But there are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—who have ignored you, O king, and have refused to serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.”

¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men.

¹²Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came from you to us have returned to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring its walls and repairing its foundations.

¹³Let it now be known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and its walls are restored, they will not pay tribute, duty, or toll, and the royal treasury will suffer.

⁴⁸If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

⁵The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds.

¹⁴The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea.

²As you are aware, we had already endured suffering and shameful treatment in Philippi. But in the face of strong opposition, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God.

²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

⁴Paul was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

²⁵One night, however, his disciples took him and lowered him in a basket through a window in the wall.

²³Then he called two of his centurions and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea in the third hour of the night.

²⁴Provide mounts for Paul to take him safely to Governor Felix.”

¹⁶Search and read the scroll of the Lord: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.

¹My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,

²if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,

³⁹You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,

¹³And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe.

²³But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and produces a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.”

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets who foretold the grace to come to you searched and investigated carefully,

¹¹trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

¹⁴So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

¹At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue, where they spoke so well that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

⁵⁰The Jews, however, incited the religious women of prominence and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he declared.

²⁶Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth.

⁸Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He shows sinners the way.

⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

¹⁴For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews,

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

⁵The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people.

²⁷When the seven days were almost over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,

²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

¹²So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,

²⁵A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.

¹⁰As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

²³When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. Truly I tell you, you will not reach all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

¹Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father.

²⁵One night, however, his disciples took him and lowered him in a basket through a window in the wall.

³⁰When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³where he stayed three months. And when the Jews formed a plot against him as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.

⁵And when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself fully to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

¹So when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left on our own in Athens.

¹After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

¹⁰because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

¹¹Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me in the ministry.

¹²As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.

³Sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers.

¹⁵⁸I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.

¹³⁶My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.

¹⁹As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.

²⁰Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

⁷and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

¹⁸For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.

¹⁹Behold, my belly is like unvented wine; it is about to burst like a new wineskin.

⁸As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

¹⁶Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak: “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who fear God, listen to me!

¹At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue, where they spoke so well that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he declared.

²⁰Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, “He is the Son of God.”

¹When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him,

²and He began to teach them, saying:

³⁴Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at the posts of my doorway.

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

⁵³As Jesus went on from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to oppose Him bitterly and to ply Him with questions about many things,

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.

²greatly disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

²⁷All the people were amazed and began to ask one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him!”

²²Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.

²⁴After several days, Felix returned with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

²²Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man myself.” “Tomorrow you will hear him,” Festus declared.

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

³⁴A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.

¹²Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.

²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

¹⁴The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

⁴Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you.

³⁵At this, the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

³⁶What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

¹⁶But avoid irreverent, empty chatter, which will only lead to more ungodliness,

¹⁷and the talk of such men will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,

⁵Act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time.

¹⁶redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

¹¹For we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives, accomplishing nothing, but being busybodies.

¹²We command and urge such people by our Lord Jesus Christ to begin working quietly to earn their own living.

¹³At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention.

¹⁹They only had some contentions with him regarding their own religion and a certain Jesus who had died, but whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.

³⁵Finally the city clerk quieted the crowd and declared, “Men of Ephesus, doesn’t everyone know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?

²This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by the signs in the heavens, though the nations themselves are terrified by them.

³For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.

³⁸A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols.

²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

⁸Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

⁹But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

³Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

²⁵Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, I know You, and they know that You sent Me.

³⁰Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

²⁸Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

²⁷But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

¹⁴Behold, to the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

¹This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?

¹⁸But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

⁸I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

⁵This is what God the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

⁷Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

²⁸‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

³⁵“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁷Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

²⁰And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living.

¹⁰Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

¹³For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

²²For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

⁴⁷The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.

²³“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away?”

²⁴“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

⁷For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

¹⁷Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness: He gives you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

²Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

⁴Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

¹⁰The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.

¹⁷He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

⁹For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

³⁸He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

²⁵“To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

⁵To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike?

⁶They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.

⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

⁵They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see;

¹⁹Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”

²⁰But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.

¹⁶In past generations, He let all nations go their own way.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone.

¹²It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

⁴⁷and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

²⁵God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.

¹⁷So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

¹⁷I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹⁶on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel.

⁷And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

³¹When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.

³²All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

⁸He judges the world with justice; He governs the people with equity.

⁹before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

¹⁸Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

⁸Why would any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

²For He says: “In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of favor; now is the day of salvation!

¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

¹³But others mocked them and said, “They are drunk on new wine!”

¹⁹They only had some contentions with him regarding their own religion and a certain Jesus who had died, but whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

¹⁹So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

⁴Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few leading women.

²²All the saints send you greetings, especially those from the household of Caesar.

¹⁰For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

¹¹so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.