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we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
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who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.
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For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials:
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that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell."
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So they were sent off and went down to Antioch. When they gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.
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When its members read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation.
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Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.
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After they had been there for some time, they were sent off in peace by the believers to those who had sent them.
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But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and there, with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord.
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After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing."
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Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.
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But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.
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The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.
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But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord.
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He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.