Common - Hebrews - 12

12:1  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

12:2  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

12:3  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

12:4  In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

12:5  And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? —"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are rebuked by him.

12:6  For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives."

12:7  It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

12:8  If you are left without discipline, in which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

12:9  Besides this, we have had fathers of our flesh to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

12:10  For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

12:11  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12:12  Therefore lift your feeble hands and strengthen your weak knees,

12:13  and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

12:14  Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

12:15  See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by it many become defiled;

12:16  that no one be immoral or godless like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

12:17  For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

12:18  For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,

12:19  and the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further word be spoken to them.

12:20  For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

12:21  The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."

12:22  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the joyful assembly

12:23  and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,

12:24  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel.

12:25  See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less shall we escape, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

12:26  Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven."

12:27  This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain.

12:28  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe,

12:29  for our God is a consuming fire.