Does it now appear to you that I am trying to gain the approval of human beings rather than the approval of God? Am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
For this reason, I rejoice when I endure weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and distress for the sake of Christ. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and indeed will do even greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.
And now it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.
When God saw by their actions that they had turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not inflict upon them the punishment that he had threatened.