I have created links for this blog. They are underlined. Some are to sites on the Web where the underlined item is explained or illustrated. But most are Bible verses, the links of which take you to the verse on the Bible Gateway site. You can return to where you were reading on my blog by the "back" button on your browser. Most of the Scripture links are to the TNIV and Holman versions. But if you are curious about how it reads in another version, you can pull down the menu to the left of the word "Update" and select from a list of other available translations.
Ch. 5: Ananias and Sapphira
Acts 5:1-11 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. 3Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." 9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.The background to verse 1 is Acts 4:36-37.
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.Hananiah and Sappirah (the Greek spellings are Ananias and Sapphira) are foils to Joseph Barnabas, whose generosity was unfeigned and sincere. Peter’s words in Acts 5:4 show that the description of koinonia in chs. 2-3 was all voluntary, not required sharing. Luke needed to give Theophilus an etymology of Joseph Barnabas’ Aramaic nickname (v. 36). Many Jews in Jesus’ day had such nicknames. Tal Ilan (LJNLA 46 [§6.1.1]) cogently describes her procedure in detecting nicknames in the form of patronyms. The Gospels tell us of other nicknames that Jesus himself bestowed upon his followers: Shimeon Keyfa (Simon Peter) “Simon, the Rock” was one; Beney regesh (Boanerges) “sons of thunder” = "impetuous zealots” was pinned on James and John, the sons of Zebedee. And the mysterious “Iscariot” added to Judas’ name was probably a nickname, although its literal meaning is in dispute (LJNLA 47 [§6.1.3], 435).
Some scholars once thought the famous Caiaphas was the nickname of the High Priest named Joseph Caiaphas, who presided at the trial of Jesus. But now we know that he was one of a number of male members of his family with this as a “family name” (LJNLA 46 and 408). The family was known as בית קיפא beyt qaypha “House of Caiapha” in the Talmud. An ossuary of the Second Temple Period, inscribed ‘Yosef bar Qayafa’, perhaps Caiaphas, was found in a family tomb in the Peace Forest near Jerusalem (BAR 18, 1992, pp. 28–45). See Z. Greenhut et al., ‘The Caiaphas Tomb in North Talpiyot, Jerusalem’, Atiqot, 21,1992, pp. 63–87. On Joseph Caiaphas see IVP-NT Background “Caiaphas Ossuary”. Luke wants his readers to know what Barnabas meant: “Encourager”, because it characterized him as the patriarch Jacob's name ("the Deceiver") characterized him, and shows that many of his fellow-believers saw evidence of this trait.
1 The phrase “with the consent of his wife Sapphira” in verse 1 modifies the sale of the property; her collusion in the pretense of giving all to the community is expressed differently in v. 2: The sale of the property may have required her participation because it was part of her dowry (Aramaic nedunya).
3-4 Ananias’ sin was not stinginess, but dishonesty. It is also “putting the Lord to the test” (Hebrew מַה־תְּנַסּוּן אֶת־יְהוָה) (Exod 17:2, 7); see also Mat 4:7; Lu 4:12; 1Cor 10:9).
7 The reader is supposed to recall the case of Achan from Joshua 7. Achan’s family was party to his sin as well, since the contraband was buried under the family tent, and since the whole family was killed at God's command. Sapphira therefore is given a chance to admit their plot. She apparently did not know of her husband’s fate; so she lied to protect him and herself. In part, this is also a violation of the commandment: לֹא־תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר (Exod 20:16).
Luke does not record Peter giving Ananias an opportunity to admit to his sin like he does to Sapphira his wife. Admission at this stage would not have delayed divine punishment, as one can see from the case of Achan in Joshua 7:19-26.
9 What is meant by putting the Holy Spirit (i.e., God) to the test? It is asking or challenging God to prove Himself. It is what every small child knows about, when he pushes his parent to see how far he can go in disobeying before there is discipline. In a Hittite text from the age of Moses the king imagines a thieving priest rationalizing his act with the thought "Since he is a god, he will say nothing (if I transgress), and he will do nothing (to punish me)!" In a similar way Ananias thought: “God won’t care if I get a little credit for something I am not deserving of!” How wrong he was!
Sapphira is shown to be no better than her husband. Given the opportunity to confess, she brazenly reaffirms their lie. Both of them are given immediate burial without mourning rites or embalming. They are simply wrapped in a sheet and carried out to a cave or tomb for deposit there. Their deaths are dramatic opposites of Stephen’s, who sees heaven open and the exalted Jesus standing to welcome him (Acts 7:56), and who is deeply mourned at his burial by the community (Acts 8:2)!
11 Verse 11 is a bridge verse, connecting the punitive miracle of Ananias and Sapphira with the following summary of the condition of the Jesus community by noting the effect of this incident on the whole body of believers. Fear of God is a healthy thing in the Church. We should always keep in mind how risky it is to “play-act” our Christianity! Some of Jesus’ harshest words were directed against hypocrisy: and not just of the Pharisees!
Widespread Healings bring the Apostles Before the Sanhedrin, 12-42
Luke shows in Acts 1-8 how the spread of the gospel in Jerusalem developed, with an intensification both of the miraculous impact of the Apostles’ witness coupled with a corresponding intensification of the opposition’s reactions. Both the power of the Spirit and Gospel as well as the intensification of opposition grow in these chapters. Earlier Peter and John invoked God’s power to heal the lame man at the gate of the temple. But now even Peter’s shadow falling inadvertently upon a sick person lying on a pallet int he street would bring healing! This reminds us of the intensification of the confrontation between Moses and the Pharaoh in Exodus 5-12: Moses’ initial demand was for a three-day trip into the wilderness (Exod 5:3), but eventually become complete emancipation of the people; while the Pharaoh’s reaction becomes first an intensification of the forced labor (Exod 5:6-9), and then an attempt to annihilate the fleeing Isralelites with his chariot corps (Exod 14). Meanwhile each of God’s ten judgments becomes more destructive, until the final one on all the firstborn sons is utterly devastating (Exod 12-13), and the annihilation of all Pharaoh’s chariots in the Sea is the coup de grace.
12-16 This is another of Luke’s summaries. Like the preceding ones, this one has a backward and a forward reference: backward to the incident of judgment on Ananias and Sapphira for endangering the spirit of unity and honesty within the community of believers and forward to the new confrontation with the authorities.
The “signs and wonders” (sêmeia kai terata) that “were regularly done” (ESV, translating the imperfect tense of the Greek verb) would have included healings, but probably also the judgment on Ananias and Sapphira. That too was supernatural evidence of the presence of the thrice-holy God in their midst (see v. 13).
Acts 5:12-16 The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.12-13 The NIV and NLT paraphrase here: compare the (N)RSV and ESV and NASV for the literal translation. Three separate groups are mentioned in these verses: “they all”, “the rest” and “the people”. The paraphrasing versions assume that the “they” refers to all the believers, and both “the rest” and “the people” refer to non-believing Jews. Other NT scholars, however, suggest that the “they” in v. 12 refers back to the apostles, not to the entire community of believers, who are called “the rest” (τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν). “All together” (ὁμοθυμαδὸν) may just mean physically together, even though the Greek word literally means “of one mind; unanimous” (see BDAG s.v.). The paraphrasers take this word in its narrowest sense and apply it not just to the apostles but to the whole community (the Message: in remarkable harmony). For Solomon’s Portico see my comment on Acts 3:11.
Since Luke appears to include here the incident of Ananias among the “signs and wonders”, we have an example of a “punitive (or rule) miracle”, on the basis of Acts 5:12, where Luke clearly has it in mind among the signs and wonders” performed by the apostles. More liberal NT scholars have doubted the authenticity of the story and accused it of being out of keeping with the spirit of Jesus. Yet such a punitive miracle has many antecedents in both OT and Gospels, some of which Witherington himself cites: Achan in Joshua 7, and Jesus cursing the fig tree and causing it to wither and die in Mark 11. Add to these the fire from heaven and the earth swallowing the rebels against Aaron and Moses in Numbers, and the leprosy judgments on Moses’ sister Miriam (Num 12:9-11), on Elisha’s assistant Gehazi (2Kgs 5:25-27) and on King Uzziah (2Chr 26:18-21), and we see that punitive miracles are by no means out of keeping with God’s actions in both testaments.
Many modern biblical scholars criticize Luke for being too gullible when it comes to events reported to him that involved miracles. They point to ancient historians who were his contemporaries, such as Plutarch, Thucycides, Polybius and Tacitus, and even the Jewish historian Josephus, who would either scoff at such incidents reported to them or at least add “everyone is entitled to his own opinion of this”. But they ignore the fact that the great Greek historian Herodotus was willing to credit some incidents involving the miraculous (on this see With. Acts 222). Luke was also in the line of the great historians of Jewish antiquity who compiled the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. For such historians some tales involving the miraculous had insufficient basis in fact, but others certainly did. Doubtless in his researches for the writing of the Gospel and the Acts, Luke had been told such stories as well. But unlike Plutarch and the others, he did not first narrate them and then scoff: he simply did not include them! We often forget how many traditions were circulating about Jesus that were not included in our four canonical gospels (see Jn 20:30). These critics also fail to see the contrast between NT authors, for whom all credible miracles served the advancement of God’s saving plan, and none the private interests of magicians and others, from the authors of non-canonical “gospels” for whom all sorts of sensational stories were uncritically passed on, often with no sufficient basis in the evidence nor any redeeming theological value. The so-called “miracles” performed by Jesus as a child recorded in the non-canonical “gospels” are the real examples of gullibility and uncritical thinking.
14 The apostles were “all together” teaching and performing healings in Solomon's Portico. For Solomon’s Portico see my comment on Acts 3:11. Despite the reluctance of some to associate themselves with the apostles in the temple precincts — either as curious unbelievers who feared further arrests like the previous ones following miracles performed by the apostles, or as believers who feared a possible judgment similar to what befell Ananias and Sapphira — the Jewish population as a whole (v. 13, "the people" = Greek ὁ λαός) admired what they were doing, and many became believers in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.
Luke doesn’t give numbers here, as he did earlier (Acts 1:15; 2:41; 4:4), but only says there were "many". His note that both men and women were attracted is an interesting reflection of his interest in the gender mix of the earliest churches, and in the suggestion that women made their own independent decisions about becoming part of the community. In the cases where a wife joined but not her husband, she could not by Jewish law freely put family assets into a community purse, as could be done when both partners were in the movement (as exemplified by the laws on vows in Num 30:3-15; Mishnah Nedarim, ch. 10). It has been known for a long time that Luke pays special attention to the role of women (Acts 1:14; 2:18; 5:14; 8:3,12; 9:2; 13:50; 16:1,13-14; 17:4,12,34; 22:4), both in the party of Jesus’ own followers and in the churches, especially those founded by Paul.
15-16 The popularity of the Apostles had a lot to do with the healing miracles and exorcisms, Exorcisms were regarded as a type of healing; or — putting it another way — the diseases suffered were caused by (or at least thought to be caused by) demon possession. The excessive focusing on the healings and exorcisms makes one wonder how sincere some of these “conversions” were. But Luke does not dwell on that possibility. He merely reports the phenomenon, as any good historian would.
The business of Peter’s shadow (With. Acts 226f) has a counterpart in Paul’s ministry, when articles of his clothing were taken to apply to the bodies of sick people in Ephesus (Acts 19:12).Luke calls these “extraordinary miracles” (δυνάμεις τε οὐ τὰς τυχούσας). There too, as Ananias tried to counterfeit the genuine generosity of Barnabas, the seven sons of the Jewish priest Sceva tried to use the name of Jesus to duplicate the extraordinary Spirit-empowered miracles of Paul, and were supernaturally exposed as frauds, and there too, as in Jerusalem, the effect of this supernatural display in authentication of the real followers of Jesus was to gain respect for the apostle Paul and for the Gospel (Acts 19:17). This is mentioned in a context that shows how utterly given over to magic were the people of Ephesus (Acts 19:11-20). Yet in that passage it is Luke’s intention to distinguish the effective cures from the articles of Paul’s clothing from the magical practices of the city, which new believers in Jesus forsake, even at the high price of burning all their valuable magical commentaries (Acts 19:19-20).
In view of Luke’s tendency to not only produce parallels between the miracles of Peter and Paul, but also between both men and Jesus, it is interesting that in his Gospel he records the case of the woman who reaches out to touch Jesus’ robe, and “power went out from him” to heal her chronic hemorrhage (Luke 8:43-48 with parallels; see also the general statement in Luke 6:19, taken from Mark 3:10). The difference is that Jesus is supernaturally aware that “power” has gone out from him”, whereas Peter and Paul have no such awareness. Matthew and Luke do not retain Mark's comment about the woman having "endured much under many physicians" who also extracted her life's savings from her (Mark 5:26). Since Matthew omits this too, it may not be because the author of Luke-Acts was a physician. What is strange is that including it would have fit Luke's concern with money shown elsewhere in both the Gospel and Acts: its proper uses (generosity) and its abuses. It also would have fit what Luke shows in Acts about the venality of magical practitioners, since these “physicians” who extracted all her money were no different from magician frauds.
Word spread from Jerusalem to all the small towns in its vicinity, from which floods of people came, hoping to have loved ones cured of diseases. When Luke reports that “all were healed”, he means that no healing attempted by an apostle failed, not necessarily that the apostles were able to give attention to every person coming for this purpose. (Some commentators think "all" is just hyperbole.)
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20"Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." 21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23"We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. 25 Then someone came and said, "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. 27 Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." 29Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! 30The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." 33When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35Then he addressed them: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." 40His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
17-18 Arrest by the temple authorities. Once again it is not the Pharisees or Essenes or Herodians, but the Sadducees who feel threatened and who, as custodians of the temple precincts can control who uses the porticos for religious instruction, can use some pretext to arrest the apostles, and thereby hopefully strop the growth of the Jesus movement. Presumably, they did this while the apostles were teaching in Solomon’s Portico. Since the trial never takes place, it is a moot point what the charge will be and Luke does not provide one. The apostles’ imprisonment is an advance picture of what will await Paul in future years, and for all we know as Saul he may have been cheering the Sadducees on the sidelines at this point!
18 The use of the term “public jail” here might indicate that the offense was considered of a more general nature than a theological aberration: perhaps something like “disturbing the peace”.
19-23 The night setting of the rescue has no special symbolic significance, since it was necessary in order to rescue them before the morning trial.
The rescue from prison has a partial parallel with Paul in Philippi (Acts 16), but there the prison doors were forced open by the earthquake, yet the apostles remained in the jail, whereas here in Acts 5 the apostles are gone but the doors are still locked. The second shows a greater miraculous face, but the former nevertheless had great impact on the Philippian jailor. The angelic rescue of these apostles, leaving the prison doors locked, recalls the empty tomb of Jesus, since the stone was not rolled away from the latter until Jesus was long gone. The angel commands them to return to the temple and “tell the people (of Israel) all the words of this Life”. This sounds like an evangelistic commission, not a teaching session for the believers. Obedient to the angel, the apostles — we aren’t told if all 12 are meant or only the “pillars”, namely Peter and John — enter the temple at daybreak, the earliest hour that a worshiper could enter the temple, and begin to speak about the resurrected and exalted Jesus. “This Life” is an expression for belief in Jesus the Messiah that we encounter again only once in the NT (1John 5:11). Elsewhere this expression refers to something quite different, namely, the present existence in this sinful world, as opposed to the future life with Christ (Luke 21:34; 1Cor 7:28; 15:19). It approximates, of course, Jesus’ own claim for himself “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”.
21 The Greek term gerousia (γερουσία) used by Luke for this assembly literally means "assembly of old men (elders)". This is the way the term is translated here by the (T)NIV and NLT. Jerome in the Latin Vulgate translation used the Latin word senatus (from senex "old man"), which was appropriate in his day. The Roman senators were usually old men (patriarchs of powerful families in Rome) with great influence. The (N)RSV, NAB, NASB, ESV and Holman Bible use the English derivative "senate", but in today's world the term “senate” conjures up the idea of a body elected by the citizenry, and there is no reason to believe such was the case with the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.
25 The last place the court expected to find these "escapees" was in the temple, where they had been arrested the evening before, much less doing what they were arrested for!
26 "But without violence" indicates that normally a person arrested was treated rather brutally. Here the apostles' popularity protects them, much as Paul used his Roman citizenship after the fact to rebuke the more brutal forms of Roman prison treatment (Acts 16:37-38).
27-28 The text says that the High Priest "questioned" them (ἐπηρώτησεν), yet no question is recorded: only an accusation. The accusation of the court was: "you have disobeyed our order not to teach any longer in this man’s name and to stir up the people to hold us responsible for his death." Here emerges for the first time a clear statement of an additional motive of the Sadducees: that they feared implication in the death of Jesus. Note how they carefully avoid using the name “Jesus”. Instead they speak obliquely of “this name” and “this man”. Perhaps they do this because they fear the "magical" power of the name Jesus, by which a man born lame has been made to walk and many other signs and wonders performed.
29-32 The apostles’ reply. v. 29 is a restatement of their earlier response to this court (Acts 4:19-20): is it safe to disobey God in order to obey a human court?
30 Having given the short answer, they explain that what compels them is the fact that “the God of our fathers” (i.e., of the founding fathers, the Patriarchs, not just "ancestors", the ones with whom the covenant was originally made!) has raised Jesus from the dead. And you are the ones who put him to death — yes, you know it, don’t you? You (through the Romans) put him to death, hanging him upon a tree, thus considering him worthy of the curse associated with such a death (Deut. 21:23 explained in Gal 3:13)! Furthermore, the fact that God has exalted him to His right hand is clear from the power the exalted Jesus has given to us to perform these healing miracles. He is there as “Prince and Savior” (ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σωτῆρα), able to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. For the combination "Prince and Savior" compare Stephen's address, where the same dual role is assigned to Moses:
- Acts 7:27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge (ἄρχοντα καὶ δικαστὴν = שַׂר וְשֹׁפֵט) over us?
- Acts 7:35 “This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer/savior (ἄρχοντα καὶ λυτρωτὴν = שַֹׂר וְגֹאֵל) by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of these claims is that each of the following statements from the standpoint of Jewish monotheism clearly implies that Jesus is God: (1) exalted to God’s right hand and throne, (2) giving repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (On this see Richard Bauckham's book God Crucified [Eerdmans].)
As for the apostles, they do not forget that this is a trial in which they find themselves. The astounding statements they just made require some substantiation, particularly the claim that Jesus was raised and exalted to God's throne. for this purpose they know their precise role: not as new lawgivers, certainly not as heretics and troublemakers, but as witnesses to his resurrection and ascension (see Acts 1), but to be sure witnesses who do so in the power of the Holy Spirit given to them (Acts 1:8), manifested most recently in the spectacular healings of which all Jerusalem is aware. This Spirit is given to all who obey him. These last words remind the court that its members do not have the Holy Spirit and that it has an obligation to obey God’s Messiah. A powerful answer, turning the tables on the interrogators!
27-40 The defendants have been arrested, the accusation given, their defense heard, the witnesses presented. Now what remains to occur is the consultation of the judges and the delivery of a verdict and sentence. On the interplay of harsh Sadducees and lenient Pharisees in judicial context see Sanders Judaism 419f, 481. The Sadducean majority of the court is furious and wishes to execute the men: a truly outrageous violation of Roman and Jewish law. But a moderate, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, intervenes with sage counsel. He cites historical precedents, recommending patience and letting the matter play out. It is a cautious and wise counsel, and the court accepts it (v. 40). Medieval church legends asserted that this Gamaliel became a believer, and there is even a painting by a follower of Carlo Saraceni, the Venetian painter, about 1615, showing "saints" Gamaliel and Nicodemus mourning at the body of Stephen!
40b-42 Nevertheless the apostles were not released unharmed: the council had them flogged. This was Peter's first taste of what his Lord had suffered, and what Paul would later suffer many times:
- After they had given (Paul and his colleagues) a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely (Acts 16:23).
- (St. Paul wrote:) Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman-I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death (2Cor. 11:23).
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. … If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. (1Pet. 4:13, 15-16)
No comments:
Post a Comment