¹⁰ For ^(A)do I now ^(B)persuade men, or God? Or ^(C)do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

⁴ But as ^(A)we have been approved by God ^(B)to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, ^(C)not as pleasing men, but God ^(D)who tests our hearts.

²⁹ But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ^(A)“We ought to obey God rather than men.

^6 (A)not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

^4 [a]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that ^(A)friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(B)Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

²⁹ but he is a Jew ^(A)who is one inwardly; and ^(B)circumcision is that of the heart, ^(C)in the Spirit, not in the letter; ^(D)whose ^[a]praise is not from men but from God.

¹⁶ And they sent to Him their disciples with the ^(A)Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not ^[a]regard the person of men.

^22 (A)Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

The Judgment Seat of Christ

⁹ Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. ^10 (A)For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ^(B)that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ¹¹ Knowing, therefore, ^(C)the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.