all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Parallel translations
- WEB praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.
- KJV Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
- BSB praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
- NKJV praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
- NASB praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The believers praised God and were respected by the wider community, while the Lord himself kept adding new converts daily. Salvation and church growth are God's work.
Overview
The summary closes by crediting growth to the Lord, not human effort: it is God who adds 'those who were being saved.' This guards against pride and points to divine sovereignty in salvation, a theme dear to the Reformed tradition. The favor they enjoyed and the praise they offered flowed from genuine transformation, as the gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus bore visible fruit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Acts 16:5So the assemblies were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.
- Acts 5:13–14None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them.
- Acts 2:41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
- 1 Cor 1:18For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
- Acts 2:39For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
- Rom 14:18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
- Acts 11:24For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and many people were added to the Lord.
- Acts 13:48As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- Titus 3:4–5But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared,
- Rom 11:5–7Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
- Rom 8:30Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
- Rom 9:27Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
- Luke 2:52And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
- Acts 4:21When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that which was done.
- Luke 19:48They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.
- Acts 4:33With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all.
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 2:47 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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