The Holy Spirit Promised

While He was together[a] with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise.(A) “This,” He said, “is what you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”(B)

So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority.(C) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends[b] of the earth.”(D)

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Footnotes

  1. Acts 1:4 Or He was eating, or He was lodging
  2. Acts 1:8 Lit the end

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.(A) 19 For it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the understanding of the experts.(B)[a]

20 Where is the philosopher?[b] Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age?(C) Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? 21 For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. 22 For the Jews ask for signs(D) and the Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified,(E) a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.[c] 24 Yet to those who are called,(F) both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 1:19 Is 29:14
  2. 1 Corinthians 1:20 Or wise
  3. 1 Corinthians 1:23 Other mss read Greeks

14 For Christ’s love compels[a] us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all,(A) then all died. 15 And He died for all(B) so that those who live should no longer live for themselves,(C) but for the One(D) who died for them and was raised.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

16 From now on, then, we do not know[b] anyone in a purely human way.[c] Even if we have known[d] Christ in a purely human way,[e] yet now we no longer know[f] Him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;(E) old things have passed away, and look,(F) new things[g] have come.(G) 18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:(H) 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world(I) to Himself,(J) not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors(K) for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf,(L) “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin(M) to be sin[h] for us,(N) so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 5:14 Or For the love of Christ impels, or For the love of Christ controls
  2. 2 Corinthians 5:16 Or regard
  3. 2 Corinthians 5:16 Lit anyone according to the flesh
  4. 2 Corinthians 5:16 Or have regarded
  5. 2 Corinthians 5:16 Lit Christ according to the flesh
  6. 2 Corinthians 5:16 Or regard
  7. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Other mss read look, all new things
  8. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Or be a sin offering

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