Simon the Sorcerer

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery^(A) in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,^{(B) 10} and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”^{(C) 11} They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God^(D) and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized,^(E) both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles^(F) he saw.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria^(G) had accepted the word of God,^(H) they sent Peter and John^(I) to Samaria. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,^{(J) 16} because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them;^(K) they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.^{(L) 17} Then Peter and John placed their hands on them,^(M) and they received the Holy Spirit.^(N)

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!^{(O) 21} You have no part or share^(P) in this ministry, because your heart is not right^(Q) before God. ²² Repent^(R) of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me^(S) so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels^(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle^(B) within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill.^(C) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive,^(D) because you ask with wrong motives,^(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴ You adulterous^(F) people,^[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world^(G) means enmity against God?^(H) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^(I)