⁸ By faith ^(A)Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place ^(B)that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

The Call of Abram

12 Now ^(A)the Lord said^[a] to Abram, “Go from your country^[b] and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ^2 (B)And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ^3 (C)I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and ^(D)in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”^[c]

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from ^(E)Haran.

² And Stephen said:

^(A)“Brothers and fathers, hear me. ^(B)The God ^(C)of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, ^(D)before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ^(E)‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ ^4 (F)Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And ^(G)after his father died, ^(H)God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

²² Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for ^(A)a sincere brotherly love, ^(B)love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Build Your House on the Rock

^24 (A)“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like ^(B)a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

¹⁸ and ^(A)in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, ^(B)because you have obeyed my voice.”

⁷ And he said to him, “I am the Lord who ^(A)brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ^(B)to give you this land to possess.” ⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, ^(C)how am I to know that I shall possess it?”

⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ^(A)“To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith ^(A)but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ^15 (B)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ^16 (C)and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[a] is that?