12
1 Therefore let’s
also, seeing we
are surrounded by
so great a
cloud of witnesses,
lay aside every weight
and the sin which
so easily
entangles us, and
let’s run
with perseverance
the race that is
set before us,
2 looking
to Jesus,
the author and
perfecter of faith,
who for the
joy that was
set before him
endured the cross,
despising its shame, and
has sat down
at the right
hand of the
throne of God.
3 For consider
him who has
endured such contradiction
of sinners against
himself, that
you don’t grow
weary, fainting in
your souls.
4 You have
not yet resisted
to blood, striving against sin.
5 You
have forgotten the
exhortation which reasons
with you as
with children,
“My son, don’t
take lightly the
chastening of the
Lord,
nor faint when
you are reproved
by him;
6 for
whom the
Lord loves, he
disciplines,
and chastises
every son whom
he receives.”
7 It
is for discipline
that you endure.
God deals with
you as with
children, for what
son is there
whom his
father doesn’t
discipline?
8 But
if you are
without discipline,
of which all
have been made
partakers, then
you are
illegitimate, and
not children.
9 Furthermore,
we had the
fathers of our
flesh to chasten
us, and we paid
them respect.
Shall we not
much rather be
in subjection to
the Father of
spirits and live?
10 For
they indeed for
a few days
disciplined us as
seemed good to
them, but he
for our profit,
that we may
be partakers of
his holiness.
11 All
chastening seems
for the present
to be not
joyous but
grievous; yet
afterward it yields
the peaceful fruit
of righteousness
to those who
have been trained
by it.
12 Therefore
lift up the
hands that hang
down and the
feeble knees,
13 and
make straight
paths for your
feet,
so what is
lame may not
be dislocated, but
rather be healed.
14 Follow
after peace with
all men, and
the sanctification without
which no man
will see the
Lord,
15 looking carefully lest
there be any
man who falls
short of the
grace of God,
lest any root
of bitterness
springing up
trouble you and
many be defiled
by it,
16 lest
there be
any sexually immoral
person or profane
person, like Esau,
who sold his
birthright for one
meal.
17 For
you know that
even when he
afterward desired
to inherit the
blessing, he
was rejected, for
he found no
place for a change
of mind though
he sought
it diligently with
tears.
18 For
you have not
come to a mountain
that might be
touched and that
burned with fire,
and to blackness,
darkness, storm,
19 the
sound of a
trumpet, and the
voice of words;
which those
who heard it
begged that not
one more word
should be spoken
to them,
20 for
they could
not stand that
which was
commanded, “If
even an animal
touches the
mountain, it shall
be stoned”.
21 So
fearful was
the appearance that
Moses said, “I
am terrified and
trembling.”
22 But
you have come
to Mount Zion
and to the
city of the
living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem,
and to innumerable multitudes
of angels,
23 to
the festal gathering and
assembly of the
firstborn who
are enrolled in
heaven, to God
the Judge of
all, to the
spirits of just
men made perfect,
24 to
Jesus, the
mediator of a
new covenant,
and to the blood
of sprinkling that
speaks better than
that of Abel.
25 See that
you don’t refuse
him who speaks.
For if they didn’t
escape when they
refused him who
warned on the
earth, how much
more will we
not escape who turn
away from him
who warns from
heaven,
26 whose
voice shook the
earth then, but
now he has
promised, saying, “Yet
once more I
will shake not
only the earth,
but also the
heavens.”
27 This phrase,
“Yet once more” signifies
the removing of
those things that
are shaken, as
of things that
have been made,
that those things
which are not
shaken may remain.
28 Therefore,
receiving a Kingdom
that can’t
be shaken, let’s
have grace,
through which we
serve God
acceptably, with
reverence and awe,
29 for
our God is
a consuming
fire.