Isaiah 48:6-11

New International Version

⁶You have heard these things; look at them all.
Will you not admit them?

“From now on I will tell you of new things,^(A)
    of hidden things unknown to you.
⁷They are created^(B) now, and not long ago;^(C)
    you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
    ‘Yes, I knew^(D) of them.’
⁸You have neither heard nor understood;^(E)
    from of old your ears^(F) have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous^(G) you are;
    you were called a rebel^(H) from birth.
⁹For my own name’s sake^(I) I delay my wrath;^(J)
    for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
    so as not to destroy you completely.^(K)
¹⁰See, I have refined^(L) you, though not as silver;
    I have tested^(M) you in the furnace^(N) of affliction.
¹¹For my own sake,^(O) for my own sake, I do this.
    How can I let myself be defamed?^(P)
    I will not yield my glory to another.^(Q)

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Romans 15:14-21

New International Version

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

¹⁴I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness,^(A) filled with knowledge^(B) and competent to instruct one another. ¹⁵Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me^(C) ¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.^(D) He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God,^(E) so that the Gentiles might become an offering^(F) acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus^(G) in my service to God.^(H) ¹⁸I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles^(I) to obey God^(J) by what I have said and done— ¹⁹by the power of signs and wonders,^(K) through the power of the Spirit of God.^(L) So from Jerusalem^(M) all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.^(N) ²⁰It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel^(O) where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.^(P) ²¹Rather, as it is written: