23 While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, “Brothers,^[a] up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God.”^(A)

¹⁶ Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people.^(A)

Thanksgiving and Encouragement

³ I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.^(A)

The Postponement of Paul’s Visit

¹² Indeed, this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world with holiness^[a] and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God—and all the more toward you.^(A)

¹⁸ Pray for us; we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.^(A)

⁴ I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵ as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I went there in order to bind those who were there and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.^(A)

² We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.^(A)

⁶ When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, “Brothers,^[a] I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection^[b] of the dead.”^(A)