⁷ “For the lips of a priest^(A) ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger^(B) of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.^(C)

¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.^(A) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water^(B) welling up to eternal life.”^(C)

³⁸ Whoever believes^(A) in me, as Scripture has said,^(B) rivers of living water^(C) will flow from within them.”^[a](D)

²⁰ Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”^(A)

¹⁴ If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.^(A)

¹⁶ “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”^(A)

The Nature of True Apostleship

4 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants^(A) of Christ and as those entrusted^(B) with the mysteries^(C) God has revealed.

²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,^(A) as though God were making his appeal through us.^(B) We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.^(C)

²⁰ and through him to reconcile^(A) to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,^(B) by making peace^(C) through his blood,^(D) shed on the cross.