Acts 15:23-37

²³They wrote this: “From the apostles and elders, your brothers, to the Gentile brothers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings!

²⁴We have heard that certain men have gone out from us, with no orders from us, and have disturbed you with teachings that upset your souls.

²⁵This being so, all of us have agreed to choose men and to send them to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas, who will tell you the same thing themselves in their own words.

²⁸For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things:

²⁹that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, it shall be well with you. Farewell.”

³⁰So they, when they were dismissed, came down to Antioch; after they gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they had read it, they rejoiced because of the encouragement.

³²Judas and Silas, also prophets, encouraged the brothers with many words and strengthened them.

³³After they had spent some time there, they were sent away in peace from the brothers to those who had sent them.

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch along with many others, where they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord.

³⁶After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return now and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to also take with them John who was called Mark.