Rewards for Obedience

11 “You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.^{(A) 2} Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,^{(B) 3} his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea^[a] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day;^{(C) 5} what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company;^{(D) 7} for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did.

⁸ “Keep, then, the entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy^{(E) 9} and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.^{(F) 10} For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys watered by rain from the sky,^{(G) 12} a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

²⁴ The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ On Peter’s arrival, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, worshiped him. ²⁶ But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.”^{(A) 27} And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled, ²⁸ and he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is improper for a Jew to associate with or to visit an outsider, but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.^{(B) 29} So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?”

³⁰ Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. ³¹ He said, ‘Cornelius, 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 staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ ³³ Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”

Gentiles Hear the Good News

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,^{(C) 35} but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness^[a] is acceptable to him.^{(D) 36} You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.^{(E) 37} That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.^{(F) 39} We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,^{(G) 40} but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear,^{(H) 41} not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.^{(I) 42} He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.^{(J) 43} All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”^(K)

Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.^{(L) 45} The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the gentiles,^{(M) 46} for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”^{(N) 48} So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.^(O)

¹³ “If you will only heed his every commandment^[a] that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul^(A)— ¹⁴ then he^[b] will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil,^{(B) 15} and he^[c] will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.^{(C) 16} Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them,^{(D) 17} for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will not yield its produce; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.^(E)

¹⁸ “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.^{(F) 19} Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise up.^{(G) 20} Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,^{(H) 21} so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²² “If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,^{(I) 23} then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than you.^{(J) 24} Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the River Euphrates, to the Western Sea.^{(K) 25} No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you.^(L)

²⁶ “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:^{(M) 27} the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today;^{(N) 28} and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.^(O)

²⁹ “When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.^{(P) 30} As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak^[d] of Moreh.^(Q)

³¹ “When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you and when you occupy it and live in it,^{(R) 32} you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem

11 Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers^[a] criticized him,^{(A) 3} saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”^{(B) 4} Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me.^{(C) 6} As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. ⁷ I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ ⁸ But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ ⁹ But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. ¹¹ At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. ¹² The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.^[b] These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.^{(D) 13} He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter;^{(E) 14} he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ ¹⁵ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.^{(F) 16} And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’^{(G) 17} If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”^{(H) 18} When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”^(I)