Acts 9:31

Gathered together in love and in the unity of the Holy Spirit grace abounds and lives are changed!

This peace was not due solely to Saul’s conversion. Tiberius, the emperor of Rome, died around this time. He was replaced by Caligula, who wanted to erect a statue of himself in the temple at Jerusalem. Thus Jewish energy was directed away from persecuting Christians and toward Caligula. Here we see God’s sovereign hand at work, giving the early church a short season of respite.

The character and nature of love as a moral category is defined particularly by the way that God the Father has loved the world and has shown a willingness to sacrifice what was most precious to Him: His beloved Son. 

The supreme attitude and action of Jesus Himself is the ideal expression of self-sacrificial love. He bore the shame and horror of the cross in order to bring healing and restoration to the world. 

“We love because he first loved us”

Acts 9:31

³¹ Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied

⁵ So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily. 

Acts 16:5

¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 

Ephesians 4:16

²⁹ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 

Ephesians 4:29

⁹ Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. 

Psalm 34:9

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

John 14:16