being a pilgrim

¹¹Most beloved, I beg you, as new arrivals and sojourners, to abstain from carnal desires, which battle against the soul.

²⁰But our way of life is in heaven. And from heaven, too, we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁴For in this place, we have no everlasting city; instead, we seek one in the future.

¹Then the Lord said to Abram: “Depart from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, and come into the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed. ³I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” ⁴And so Abram departed just as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵And he took his wife Sarai, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the substance which they had come to possess, and the lives which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed in order to go to the land of Canaan. And when they arrived in it, ⁶Abram passed through the land even to the place of Shechem, as far as the famous steep valley. Now at that time, the Canaanite was in the land.

¹For we know that, when our earthly house of this habitation is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven. ²And for this reason also, we groan, desiring to be clothed from above with our habitation from heaven. ³If we are so clothed, then we will not be found to be naked. ⁴Then too, we who are in this tabernacle groan under the burden, because we do not want to be stripped, but rather to be clothed from above, so that what is mortal may be absorbed by life. ⁵Now the One who accomplishes this very thing in us is God, who has given us the pledge of the Spirit. ⁶Therefore, we are ever confident, knowing that, while we are in the body, we are on a pilgrimage in the Lord.

²²And when they had established priests for them in each church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they believed.

³⁶Jesus responded: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my ministers would certainly strive so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not now from here.”

⁹He responded, “The days of my sojourn are one hundred and thirty years, few and unworthy, and they do not reach even to the days of the sojourning of my fathers.”

¹⁵Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away, with its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides unto eternity.

²⁰Then he was questioned by the Pharisees: “When does the kingdom of God arrive?” And in response, he said to them: “The kingdom of God arrives unobserved. ²¹And so, they will not say, ‘Behold, it is here,’ or ‘Behold, it is there.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world, in order to judge the world, but in order that the world may be saved through him.

¹Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not apparent. ²For this reason, the ancients were given testimony. ³By faith, we understand the world to be fashioned by the Word of God, so that the visible might be made by the invisible. ⁴By faith, Abel offered to God a much better sacrifice than that of Cain, through which he obtained testimony that he was just, in that God offered testimony to his gifts. And through that sacrifice, he still speaks to us, though he is dead. ⁵By faith, Enoch was transferred, so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God had transferred him. For before he was transferred, he had testimony that he pleased God. ⁶But without faith, it is impossible to please God. For whoever approaches God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.

¹In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. ²But the earth was empty and unoccupied, and darknesses were over the face of the abyss; and so the Spirit of God was brought over the waters. ³And God said, “Let there be light.” And light became. ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good; and so he divided the light from the darknesses. ⁵And he called the light, ‘Day,’ and the darknesses, ‘Night.’ And it became evening and morning, one day. ⁶God also said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide waters from waters.”