When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul was saying and insulted him.

But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

And they said many other insulting things to him.

Our friends, the same things happened to you that happened to the churches of God in Judea, to the people there who belong to Christ Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from your own people that they suffered from the Jews,

They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

who is gentle as you correct your opponents, for it may be that God will give them the opportunity to repent and come to know the truth.

But you dishonor the poor! Who are the ones who oppress you and drag you before the judges? The rich!

They are the ones who speak evil of that good name which has been given to you.

And now the heathen are surprised when you do not join them in the same wild and reckless living, and so they insult you.

Happy are you if you are insulted because you are Christ's followers; this means that the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

The apostles shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went on to Iconium.

Then I took off the sash I was wearing around my waist and shook it out. "This is how God will shake any of you who don't keep your promise," I said. "God will take away your houses and everything you own, and will leave you with nothing." Everyone who was present said, "Amen!" and praised the LORD. And the leaders kept their promise.

And if some home or town will not welcome you or listen to you, then leave that place and shake the dust off your feet.

wherever people don't welcome you, leave that town and shake the dust off your feet as a warning to them."

But whenever you go into a town and are not welcomed, go out in the streets and say,

'Even the dust from your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. But remember that the Kingdom of God has come near you!'

So I solemnly declare to you this very day: if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible.

For I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God.

The LORD gave the following regulations. Any of you that curse your father or mother shall be put to death; you are responsible for your own death.

A man who has intercourse with one of his father's wives disgraces his father, and both he and the woman shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death.

If a man has intercourse with his daughter-in-law, they shall both be put to death. They have committed incest and are responsible for their own death.

and David said to the Amalekite, "You brought this on yourself. You condemned yourself when you confessed that you killed the one whom the LORD chose to be king."

If I announce that someone evil is going to die but you do not warn him to change his ways so that he can save his life, he will die, still a sinner, but I will hold you responsible for his death.

If you do warn an evil man and he doesn't stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared.

and lends money for profit. Will he live? No, he will not. He has done all these disgusting things, and so he will die. He will be to blame for his own death.

If someone hears it but pays no attention and the enemy comes and kills him, then he is to blame for his own death.

If I announce that an evil person is going to die but you do not warn him to change his ways so that he can save his life, then he will die, still a sinner, and I will hold you responsible for his death.

If you do warn an evil person and he doesn't stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared."

Be in no hurry to lay hands on people to dedicate them to the Lord's service. Take no part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.

But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles.

For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, so that all the world may be saved.' "

But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

This went on for two years, so that all the people who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord.

First in Damascus and in Jerusalem and then in the whole country of Israel and among the Gentiles, I preached that they must repent of their sins and turn to God and do the things that would show they had repented.

And Paul concluded: "You are to know, then, that God's message of salvation has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen!"

I assure you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of heaven.

"And so I tell you," added Jesus, "the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits."

So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike; and the wedding hall was filled with people.

Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is.

This is what he says in the book of Hosea: "The people who were not mine I will call 'My People.' The nation that I did not love I will call 'My Beloved.'

And in the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called the children of the living God."

So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;

And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him.

As the scripture says, "Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved."

I ask, then: When the Jews stumbled, did they fall to their ruin? By no means! Because they sinned, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous of them.

I am speaking now to you Gentiles: As long as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I will take pride in my work.

For when they were rejected, all other people were changed from God's enemies into his friends. What will it be, then, when they are accepted? It will be life for the dead!