"Behold, I am sending you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Go [therefore] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they will kill and persecute,'

and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Therefore Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! Just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say that Jesus [is] Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

And there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord.

But to each [one] the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the profit [of all).

and to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."

He that descended, He is also the [One] who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.

for the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ,

Now in these days prophets went down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

Now there were some in the church being in Antioch [who were] prophets and teachers: Both Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.

And those who dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry, and give gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

Out of the fruit of righteousness grows a tree of life, but the souls of transgressors are cut off before their time.

However, we speak wisdom among those that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise architect I have laid the foundation, but another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

whom we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

Then He said to them, "Therefore every scribe having become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure new and old [things]."

"Behold, I am sending you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

But beware of men, for they will hand you over to councils and they will flog you in their synagogues.

They will excommunicate you; but a time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is offering God a service.

And they were persuaded by him, and when they called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and released them.

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, you also do.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold about the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers,

and casting him outside the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes beside the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Then Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

and requested from him letters [of authority] to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he should find any who were of the Way, both men or women, he might bring them, having been bound, to Jerusalem.

And he put to death James the brother of John with the sword.

But there arrived from Antioch and Iconium Jews, and having persuaded the crowds and having stoned Paul, they dragged [him] outside the city, supposing him to have died.

"And I said, 'Lord, they know that in every synagogue I was imprisoning and beating those believing on You.

And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by consenting to his murder, and guarding the clothes of those murdering him.'

By [the] Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have spent in the depth [of the sea].

forbidding us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, so as always to fill up [the measure of] their sins; but the wrath [of God] has come upon them to the uttermost.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tried, they were slain, being murdered with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being in want, being afflicted, being ill treated,