pilgrims

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,

¹³All of these passed away, adhering to faith, not having received the promises, yet beholding them from afar and saluting them, and confessing themselves to be sojourners and guests upon the earth.

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.

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.

¹See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we would be called, and would become, the sons of God. Because of this, the world does not know us, for it did not know him. ²Most beloved, we are now the sons of God. But what we shall be then has not yet appeared. We know that when he does appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

⁴⁰And you shall take for yourselves, on the first day, the fruits of the most beautiful tree, and branches of palm trees, and branches of trees with thick foliage, and willows from the torrent. And you shall rejoice in the sight of the Lord your God. ⁴¹And you shall celebrate its solemnity for seven days each year. This shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month, you shall celebrate the feast, ⁴²and you shall live under shelters for seven days. All who are of the family of Israel shall dwell in tabernacles, ⁴³so that your posterity may learn that I caused the sons of Israel to live in tabernacles, when I led them away from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

¹³All of these passed away, adhering to faith, not having received the promises, yet beholding them from afar and saluting them, and confessing themselves to be sojourners and guests upon the earth. ¹⁴For those who speak in this way are themselves indicating that they seek a homeland. ¹⁵And if, indeed, they had been mindful of the very place from which they departed, they certainly would have returned in time. ¹⁶But now they hunger for a better place, that is, Heaven. For this reason, God is not ashamed to be called their God. For he has prepared a city for them.

²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.

⁴And I heard another voice from heaven, saying: “Go away from her, my people, so that you may not be participants in her pleasures, and so that you may not be recipients of her afflictions.

²⁶“If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and yes, even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple. ²⁷And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, is not able to be my disciple.

⁸By faith, the one called Abraham obeyed, going out to the place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹By faith, he stayed in the Land of the Promise as if in a foreign land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was awaiting a city having firm foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

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.

¹⁹If you had been of the world, the world would love what is its own. Yet truly, you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; because of this, the world hates you.

⁴You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into an enemy of God.