Bible verses about "homecoming" | Riverside

¹ MY children, I am writing this to you in order that you may not sin. Even if any one sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is righteous. ² And he is an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but for those of the whole world. ³ By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commands. ⁴ He who says, "I know him," and does not keep his commands, is a liar and truth is not in him. ⁵ But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God has been made perfect. By this we know that we are in him. ⁶ He who says that he is abiding in him ought himself to live as he lived. ⁷ Beloved, I am not writing a new command for you, but an old command, which you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message that you have heard. ⁸ Again I am writing a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. ⁹ He who says that he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness still. ¹⁰ He who loves his brother remains in the light and there is no stumbling block in him. ¹¹ He who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and knows not where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. ¹² I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake. ¹³ I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the Evil One. I have written to you, little children, because you have come to know the Father. ¹⁴ I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and the message of God remains in you and you have conquered the Evil One. ¹⁵ Do not love the world nor the things that are in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; ¹⁶ for all that is in the world, the passions of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the show and pride of life, is not from the Father, but from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away with its passions. But he who does the will of God endures forever. ¹⁸ Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would have continued with us. But they went out so that it might be plainly seen that not all are of us. ²⁰ You have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. ²¹ I am not writing to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and know that no lie is from the truth. ²² Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father either. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴ Let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise that he has promised us — the life eternal. ²⁶ I am writing this to you in regard to those who are misleading you. ²⁷ But as for you, the anointing that you have received from him remains in you and you have no need for any one to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is no lie and as it has taught you, you must remain in him. ²⁸ And now, little children, remain in him so that if he appears we may have confidence and not shrink in shame from him at his coming. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that every one who does righteousness has been born of him.

¹ THEREFORE, surrounded as we are by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that lies before us, ² looking to Jesus the beginner and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured a cross, thinking little of the shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Think of him who endured such hostile speaking of sinners against him, that you may not grow weary and despondent in heart. ⁴ You have not yet resisted to blood in the contest against sin, ⁵ and you have forgotten the encouragement which reasons with you as with sons, "My son, do not think slightingly of the discipline of the Lord and be not faint-hearted when reproved by him: ⁶ for whom the Lord loves he disciplines and scourges every son whom he receives as his own." ⁷ It is for discipline that you are enduring. God is laying it upon you as upon sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ But if you are without discipline, in which all share, then you are bastards and not sons. ⁹ Besides, we had fathers of our flesh who disciplined us and we used to reverence them. Shall we not much more be submissive to the Father of our spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may share his holiness. ¹¹ All discipline for the time being seems not joyous but grievous, but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have passed through its training. ¹² So raise the relaxed hands and straighten the unstrung knees ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame limb may not be put out of joint but rather cured. ¹⁴ Follow after peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ Be on your guard that no one shall fail of the grace of God, that no bitter root shall sprout up and trouble you and through it many be stained, ¹⁶ that there shall be none unchaste, or profane like Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward when he wished to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for he found no place for a change in his father's mind though he sought it earnestly with tears. ¹⁸ For you have not come to something that may be touched, ablaze with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest ¹⁹ and the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which those who heard begged not to have spoken of them. ²⁰ For they could not bear the command, "If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned." ²¹ And so dreadful was the sight that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling." ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels, ²³ to the festal assembly and congregation of first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which tells something better than the blood of Abel. ²⁵ Beware of rejecting him who is speaking. For if those did not escape who rejected him who taught the divine will on earth, much less shall we if we reject him who speaks from heaven. ²⁶ His voice then shook the earth, but now he has announced, "Yet once for all I shall shake not only the earth but also heaven." ²⁷ And this expression "yet once for all" shows the removal of the things shaken, as of things that have been made, that the unshaken things may remain. ²⁸ So then, since we are receiving an unshaken kingdom, let us have grace by which we may worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. ²⁹ For our God is a consuming fire.

¹ LET brotherly love continue. ² Do not forget hospitality: for by this some have, without knowing it, had angels as their guests. ³ Keep in mind the prisoners, as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are suffering hardships, since you yourselves are also in the body. ⁴ Let marriage be held in honor by all and let the bed be undefiled; for unchaste persons and adulterers God will judge. ⁵ Let your lives be free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. For he has said, "I will not fail you nor will I forsake you." ⁶ So we may say with courage, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" ⁷ Remember your leaders, those who have spoken to you God's message, think how they ended their lives and imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is yesterday and to-day the same — yes, and through the ages. ⁹ Do not be carried away with all sorts of foreign teachings. It is well to have the heart strengthened by grace, not by special kinds of food. Those who live in that way are not profited. ¹⁰ We have an altar of which those who worship in the Tent have no right to eat. ¹¹ For the bodies of the animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the High Priest are burned outside the camp. ¹² For this reason Jesus also, to make the people holy by his own blood, suffered outside the gate. ¹³ Let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the reproaches cast on him. ¹⁴ For we have here no continuing city, but we are seeking the coming one. ¹⁵ Through him then let us offer to God always the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that make confession in his name. ¹⁶ Do not forget kindness and generosity, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. ¹⁷ Obey your leaders and yield to their authority; for they watch over your souls as those who must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with sighing. That would be unprofitable for you. ¹⁸ Pray for us: for we are confident that we have a good conscience, wishing to live nobly in every way. ¹⁹ I earnestly beg you to do this that I may be restored to you the sooner. ²⁰ May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of an eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with every good thing for doing his will, doing in you what is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. Amen. ²² I beg you, brethren, to bear with my words of exhortation; for I have written to you briefly. ²³ I wish you to know that our brother Timothy has been set at liberty. With him, if he comes soon, I will see you. ²⁴ Give my greetings to all your leaders and all the holy. Those who are from Italy send their greetings to you. ²⁵ Grace be with you all.

¹ JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Twelve Tribes which are scattered in foreign lands: Greeting. ² Think it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into all sorts of trials, ³ since you know that the testing of your faith brings out endurance. ⁴ Let endurance do its complete work, that you may be complete and perfect, lacking in nothing. ⁵ If any one of you is lacking in wisdom, let him ask it from God, who gives to all freely without reproaching, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But he must ask in faith with never a doubt. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. ⁷ For that man must not think that he will obtain anything from the Lord — ⁸ a two-minded man unsteady in all his ways. ⁹ Let the lowly brother glory in his high station, ¹⁰ and let the rich brother glory in his lowly station, for he will pass away like a flower of the grass. ¹¹ For the sun rises with scorching heat and dries up the grass, and the flower of it falls and the beauty of its face perishes. So shall the rich man wither in his pursuits. ¹² Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been tested he will gain the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. ¹³ No one must say when tempted, "My temptation comes from God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he tempts no one. ¹⁴ Every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own passions and enticed. ¹⁵ Then when passion has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. ¹⁶ Make no mistake, my beloved brethren, ¹⁷ every good gift and every perfect boon is from above; it descends from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or shadow caused by turning. ¹⁸ Of his own will he made us his children through the message of truth, so that we might be a sort of first fruits of his creatures. ¹⁹ I wish you to know this, my beloved brethren: Every man must be quick to hear, but slow to speak, slow to anger. ²⁰ For a man's anger does not work out God's righteousness. ²¹ So lay aside all that is vile and all that remains of malice, and receive with gentleness the implanted message which can save your souls. ²² Become doers of the message and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. ²³ For if one is a hearer of the message and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ He looks at himself and is gone, and immediately forgets what sort of man he was. ²⁵ But he who looks earnestly into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do so, and becomes not a forgetful hearer but a doer of work — that man will be blessed in what he does. ²⁶ If any one thinks himself religious while he does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, that man's religion is worthless. ²⁷ Pure and stainless religion in the sight of God the Father is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.

²⁷ Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor fearful.

⁹ After this I looked and there was a great multitude which no one could count, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands, ¹⁰ and they shouted with a loud voice saying, "Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb!" ¹¹ And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God ¹² saying, "Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God for the ages of the ages! Amen."

¹¹ He said further, "A certain man had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of the property that is coming to me.' So he divided his wealth between them. ¹³ Not many days later, the younger son got everything together and went away to a far country and there squandered his property in a dissolute life. ¹⁴ When he had spent everything, there came a terrible famine in that land and he began to be in want. ¹⁵ So he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would fain have filled his stomach with the pods the swine were eating, but no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ Then, coming to himself, he said, 'How many hired men of my father have bread more than enough, and here I am perishing with famine. ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men.' ²⁰ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and pitied him, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him tenderly. ²¹ The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son' — ²² But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; ²³ and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry. ²⁴ For this, my son, was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to be merry. ²⁵ Now his older son was in the field, and when on returning he drew near the house he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ Calling to him one of the servants, he inquired what this was. The servant said to him, ²⁷ 'Your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back in health.' ²⁸ But he grew angry, and would not go in. Then his father came out and begged him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, 'See, all these years I have been serving you, and I never broke a command of yours, yet you have never given me a kid to make merry with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours, who has wasted your property with bad women, came, you have killed for him the fattened calf.' ³¹ But the father said to him, 'Child, you are always with me and all that I have is yours. ³² We could not but make merry and rejoice, for your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.'

¹⁴ Above all these, clothe yourselves with love, which is the perfect bond of union. ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ be umpire in your hearts. For this you were called into one body. And be thankful.

² In my Father's house are many abiding places. If it were not so I would have told you.

¹ FOR we know that if this tent, our earthly home, is thrown down, we have a building of God, a home not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we sigh in earnest desire to put on our dwelling that comes from heaven, ³ since if we put that on we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent we sigh being burdened, not that we wish to be unclothed, but to put on the other, that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life. ⁵ He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, and he has given to us the pledge of the Spirit. ⁶ So being always of good courage and knowing that while living at home in the body we are living in a foreign land away from the Lord — ⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight — ⁸ I say we are of good courage and wish rather to live in the land foreign to the body and be at home with the Lord. ⁹ Therefore also we are ambitious to be pleasing to him, whether at home with him or in this foreign land. ¹⁰ For we must all appear as we truly are before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the award for what he has done with his body, according to his actions, whether good or bad. ¹¹ Knowing, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we are persuading men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope that it is also plain to your consciences. ¹² We are not recommending ourselves again to you, but giving occasion to you for boasting on our behalf, that you may have it to use against those who boast of appearances and not of heart. ¹³ For if we were out of our minds it was for God, and if we are sane it is for you. ¹⁴ For the love of Christ impels us, convinced of this, that if one died for all, then all died, ¹⁵ and he died for all that the living may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. ¹⁶ So we, from now on, know no man according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. ¹⁷ So if any one is in Christ he is a new creature. The old things have passed away, they have become new. ¹⁸ And all things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given to us the service of reconciliation — ¹⁹ to proclaim that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting against men their sins, and that he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing to you through us. We pray you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God. ²¹ Him who knew no sin God made sin for our sake that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

¹⁹ He, however, did not consent, but said, "Go to your own house and to your family, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you."