RKJNT - Hebrews - 12

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

12:2  Looking to Jesus the author and finisher 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  For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you grow weary and fainthearted.

12:4  You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood in your striving against sin.

12:5  And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons, My son, do not think lightly of the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him:

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

12:7  You must endure for discipline. God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

12:8  But if you are left without discipline, of which all are partakers, then are you are illegitimate children, and not sons.

12:9  Furthermore, we have had earthly fathers who corrected us, and we gave them respect: shall we not much more be in subjection 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 might be partakers of his holiness.

12:11  At the time, no discipline seems to be joyful, but painful: nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.

12:12  Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

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

12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

12:15  See to it that no man fails to obtain the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble you, and thereby defile many;

12:16  That there be no sexually immoral, or godless person, like Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright.

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

12:18  For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, that burns with fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and tempest,

12:19  And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice whose words made those who heard beg that no further word should be spoken to them.

12:20  For they could not endure that which was commanded: If so much as a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned.

12:21  And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and tremble.

12:22  But you have come to mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

12:23  To the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written 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 the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, that speaks better things than that of Abel.

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

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

12:27  And the words, Yet once more, signify the removal of those things which can be shaken, of created things, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

12:28  Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us be grateful, and worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe:

12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.