After<n id="1" /> he had said<n id="2" /> this,<n id="3" /> he dismissed the assembly.<n id="4" />p>

and when he arrived<n id="1" /> at Caesarea,<n id="2" /> he went up and greeted<n id="3" /> the church at Jerusalem<n id="4" /> and then went down to Antioch.<n id="5" />

The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up,<n id="1" /> but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.

Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters<n id="1" /> who are in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets in her<n id="2" /> house.<n id="3" />

Great<n id="1" /> fear gripped<n id="2" /> the whole church<n id="3" /> and all who heard about these things.p>

When they had appointed elders<n id="1" /> for them in the various churches,<n id="2" /> with prayer and fasting<n id="3" /> they entrusted them to the protection<n id="4" /> of the Lord in whom they had believed.

This mystery is great &#8211; but I am actually<n id="1" /> speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

But Saul was trying to destroy<n id="1" /> the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off<n id="2" /> both men and women and put them in prison.<n id="3" />p>

When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported<n id="1" /> all the things God<n id="2" /> had done with them, and that he had opened a door<n id="3" /> of faith for the Gentiles.

Also greet the church in their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus,<n id="1" /> who was the first convert<n id="2" /> to Christ in the province of Asia.<n id="3" />

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

<p class="bodytext">For you have heard of my former way of life<n id="1" /> in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it.

Husbands, love your<n id="1" /> wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her

so that he<n id="1" /> may present the church to himself as glorious &#8211; not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.<n id="2" />

For no one has ever hated his own body<n id="1" /> but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church,

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades<n id="1" /> will not overpower it.

And Saul agreed completely with killing<n id="1" /> him.p><t /><p class="bodytext">Now on that day a great<n id="2" /> persecution began<n id="3" /> against the church in Jerusalem,<n id="4" /> and all<n id="5" /> except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions<n id="6" /> of Judea and Samaria.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch:<n id="1" /> Barnabas, Simeon called Niger,<n id="2" /> Lucius the Cyrenian,<n id="3" /> Manaen (a close friend of Herod<n id="4" /> the tetrarch<n id="5" /> from childhood<n id="6" />) and Saul.

Watch out for<n id="1" /> yourselves and for all the flock of which<n id="2" /> the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,<n id="3" /> to shepherd the church of God<n id="4" /> that he obtained<n id="5" /> with the blood of his own Son.<n id="6" />