Love and Serve the Lord

11 ^(A)“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and ^(B)keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. ² And consider today (since I am not speaking to ^(C)your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline^[a] of the Lord your God, ^(D)his greatness, ^(E)his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ^3 (F)his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, ⁴ and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, ^(G)how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, ⁵ and ^(H)what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, ⁶ and ^(I)what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. ⁷ For your eyes have seen ^(J)all the great work of the Lord that he did.

⁸ “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may ^(K)be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, ⁹ and ^(L)that you may live long in the land ^(M)that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, ^(N)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,^[b] like a garden of vegetables. ^11 (O)But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, ¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. ^(P)The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

²⁴ And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and ^(A)fell down at his feet and ^(B)worshiped him. ²⁶ But Peter lifted him up, saying, ^(C)“Stand up; I too am a man.” ²⁷ And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. ²⁸ And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew ^(D)to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but ^(E)God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”

³⁰ And Cornelius said, ^(F)“Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at ^(G)the ninth hour,^[a] and behold, ^(H)a man stood before me in bright clothing ³¹ and said, ‘Cornelius, ^(I)your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. ³² Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ ³³ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”

Gentiles Hear the Good News

³⁴ So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that ^(J)God ^(K)shows no partiality, ³⁵ but ^(L)in every nation anyone who fears him and ^(M)does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ As for ^(N)the word that he sent to Israel, ^(O)preaching good news of ^(P)peace through Jesus Christ (^(Q)he is Lord of all), ³⁷ you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, ^(R)beginning ^(S)from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: ³⁸ how ^(T)God anointed Jesus of Nazareth ^(U)with the Holy Spirit and with ^(V)power. He went about doing good and healing all ^(W)who were oppressed by the devil, ^(X)for God was with him. ³⁹ And ^(Y)we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. ^(Z)They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, ⁴⁰ but ^(AA)God raised him on ^(AB)the third day and made him to ^(AC)appear, ^41 (AD)not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as ^(AE)witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² And ^(AF)he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify ^(AG)that he is the one appointed by God to be judge ^(AH)of the living and the dead. ^43 (AI)To him ^(AJ)all the prophets bear witness that ^(AK)everyone who believes in him receives ^(AL)forgiveness of sins ^(AM)through his name.”

The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles

⁴⁴ While Peter was still saying these things, ^(AN)the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. ⁴⁵ And the believers from among ^(AO)the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because ^(AP)the gift of the Holy Spirit ^(AQ)was poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they were hearing them ^(AR)speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, ^47 (AS)“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit ^(AT)just as we have?” ⁴⁸ And he ^(AU)commanded them ^(AV)to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

¹³ “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, ^(A)to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ^14 (B)he^[a] will give the rain for your land in its season, ^(C)the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. ^15 (D)And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and ^(E)you shall eat and be full. ¹⁶ Take care ^(F)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(G)serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷ then ^(H)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he ^(I)will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and ^(J)you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

^18 (K)“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and ^(L)you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^20 (M)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ^21 (N)that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, ^(O)as long as the heavens are above the earth. ²² For if ^(P)you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and ^(Q)holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord ^(R)will drive out all these nations before you, and you will ^(S)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ^24 (T)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ^(U)from the wilderness to^[b] the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. ^25 (V)No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay ^(W)the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ^(X)as he promised you.

^26 (Y)“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (Z)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, ²⁸ and ^(AA)the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, ^(AB)to go after other gods that you have not known. ²⁹ And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set ^(AC)the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the ^(AD)Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ^(AE)the oak^[c] of Moreh? ³¹ For you are ^(AF)to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, ³² you shall be careful ^(AG)to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

Peter Reports to the Church

11 Now the apostles and ^(A)the brothers^[a] who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, ^(B)the circumcision party^[b] criticized him, saying, ^3 (C)“You went to uncircumcised men and ^(D)ate with them.” ⁴ But Peter began and explained it to them in order: ^5 (E)“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. ⁶ Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. ⁷ And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ ⁸ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ ⁹ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. ¹¹ And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. ¹² And the Spirit told me to go with them, ^(F)making no distinction. ^(G)These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. ¹³ And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; ^14 (H)he will declare to you a message by which ^(I)you will be saved, you and all your household.’ ¹⁵ As I began to speak, ^(J)the Holy Spirit fell on them ^(K)just as on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ^(L)‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ If then ^(M)God gave ^(N)the same gift to them as he gave to us ^(O)when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, ^(P)who was I ^(Q)that I could stand in God's way?” ¹⁸ When they heard these things they fell silent. And they ^(R)glorified God, saying, ^(S)“Then to the Gentiles also God has ^(T)granted ^(U)repentance that leads to life.”