Hebrews 12
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and run with perseverance the race set before us.
2 Let us look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider the one who endured such opposition from sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary or lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that speaks to you as to children: “My child, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or lose heart when he rebukes you.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every child he accepts.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as children. For what child is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 But if you are without the discipline in which everyone has shared, then you are illegitimate and not children.
9 Besides, we had our human fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not submit much more to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a few days as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, so that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later, however, it yields a peaceful fruit—the fruit of righteousness—to those trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your drooping hands and weakened knees.
13 Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.
14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many are defiled.
16 See that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears.
18 For you have not come to something that can be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm.
19 Nor to the sound of a trumpet and a voice speaking words—the ones who heard it asked that no further word be spoken to them.
20 For they could not bear what was commanded: “Even if an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”
21 And what was seen was so terrifying 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, and to myriads of angels in festal gathering,
23 to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
24 to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to sprinkled blood that speaks better than Abel’s.
25 Take care not to reject the one who speaks. For if those who rejected the one warning them on earth did not escape, much less will we if we turn away from the one speaking from heaven.
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”
27 The words “Once more” indicate the removal of the things that are shaken, since they are created things, so that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be grateful, and in this way worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe.
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
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