The Faith of Abraham

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

The Call of Abram

12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.^{(A) 2} 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.^{(B) 3} I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”^[a](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 Haran.^(D)

² And Stephen replied:

“Brothers^[a] and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,^{(A) 3} and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’^{(B) 4} Then he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this country in which you are now living.^(C)

²² Now that you have purified your souls^[a] by your obedience to the truth^[b] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.^[c](A)

Hearers and Doers

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

¹⁸ and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”^(A)

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

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

Faith without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it?^{(A) 15} If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food^{(B) 16} and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?