Montgomery - Hebrews - 12

12:1  Seeing then that we are encircled with this great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin that clings about us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

12:2  looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured a cross, despising shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

12:3  Compare yourselves with him who endured such hostility against himself at the hands of sinners, lest you grow weary, fainting in your souls.

12:4  Not yet have you resisted unto blood in your fight against sin;

12:5  and have you forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as sons? My son, do not despise the training of the Lord, Nor faint when he corrects you;

12:6  For it is those whom he loves that he disciplines, And he scourges every son whom he acknowledges.

12:7  It is for discipline that you are enduring these sufferings. God is dealing with 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 children share, then are you bastards and not sons.

12:9  Furthermore, our earthly fathers used to discipline us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?

12:10  For they only disciplined us for a few days, as seemed good to them; but he does it for our profit, that we may share his holiness.

12:11  Now no discipline seems for the present to be joyous, but grievous; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained under it.

12:12  Wherefore lift up your listless hands, strengthen your feeble knees;

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

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

12:15  Look carefully that there be no one who falls back from the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up to trouble you, and by its means many become defiled.

12:16  Take care lest there be any fornicator or scorner like Esau among you, who for one meal sold his birthright.

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

12:18  For you are not come to a palpable and enkindled fire,

12:19  nor to gloom and darkness and tempest and the blare of a trumpet and an audible voice. Those who heard that voice entreated that no word more should be spoken to them.

12:20  For they could not endure that which was enjoined, Even if a wild beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned to death;

12:21  and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble.

12:22  On the contrary you are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable hosts of angels,

12:23  to the festal assemblage and church of the firstborn, registered in heaven, to a Judge who is God of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

12:24  to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to his sprinkled Blood whose message cries louder than that of Abel.

12:25  See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape punishment when they refused to listen to their instructor on earth, much less shall we escape if we turn away from him who is teaching us from heaven;

12:26  whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, Once again, once for all, I make not only earth, but heaven also to tremble.

12:27  That phrase, "Once again," signifies the removal of the things which can be shaken, created things, in order that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

12:28  Wherefore since we are receiving a kingdom which is unshakable, let us give thanks, and so offer acceptable worship to God, with holy awe and fear,

12:29  FOR INDEED OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.