Hebrews 12
12
God our Father
1As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses round us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. 2Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right-hand side of God's throne.
3Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. 4For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. 5#Job 5.17; Prov 3.11–12 (LXX)Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his sons and daughters?
“My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you,
and do not be discouraged when he rebukes you.
6Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves,
and punishes everyone he accepts as his child.”
7Endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? 8If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. 9In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! 10Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness. 11When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.
Instructions and Warnings
12 #
Is 35.3
Lift up your tired hands, then, and strengthen your trembling knees! 13#Prov 4.26 (LXX)Keep walking on straight paths, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.
14Try to be at peace with everyone, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it. 15#Deut 29.18 (LXX)Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison. 16#Gen 25.29–34Let no one become immoral or unspiritual like Esau, who for a single meal sold his rights as the elder son. 17#Gen 27.30–40Afterwards, you know, he wanted to receive his father's blessing; but he was turned away, because he could not find any way to change what he had done, even though in tears he looked for it.#12.17 he looked for it; or he tried to get the blessing.
18 #
Ex 19.16–22; 20.18–21; Deut 4.11–12; 5.22–27 You have not come, as the people of Israel came, to what you can feel, to Mount Sinai with its blazing fire, the darkness and the gloom, the storm, 19the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of a voice. When the people heard the voice, they begged not to hear another word, 20#Ex 19.12–13because they could not bear the order which said, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21#Deut 9.19The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling and afraid!”
22Instead, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels. 23You have come to the joyful gathering of God's firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, who is the judge of all people, and to the spirits of good people made perfect. 24#Gen 4.10You have come to Jesus, who arranged the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that promises much better things than does the blood of Abel.
25 #
Ex 20.22
Be careful, then, and do not refuse to hear him who speaks. Those who refused to hear the one who gave the divine message on earth did not escape. How much less shall we escape, then, if we turn away from the one who speaks from heaven! 26#Hag 2.6 (LXX)His voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has promised, “I will once more shake not only the earth but heaven as well.” 27The words “once more” plainly show that the created things will be shaken and removed, so that the things that cannot be shaken will remain.
28Let us be thankful, then, because we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him, with reverence and awe; 29#Deut 4.24because our God is indeed a destroying fire.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Hebrews 12
12
1Therefore, we also having so great a cloud of witnesses set around us, every weight having put off, and the closely besetting sin, through endurance may we run the contest that is set before us,
2looking to the author and perfecter of faith — Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him — did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down;
3for consider again him who endured such gainsaying from the sinners to himself, that ye may not be wearied in your souls — being faint.
4Not yet unto blood did ye resist — with the sin striving;
5and ye have forgotten the exhortation that doth speak fully with you as with sons, ‘My son, be not despising chastening of the Lord, nor be faint, being reproved by Him,
6for whom the Lord doth love He doth chasten, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;’
7if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten?
8and if ye are apart from chastening, of which all have become partakers, then bastards are ye, and not sons.
9Then, indeed, fathers of our flesh we have had, chastising [us], and we were reverencing [them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of the spirits, and live?
10for they, indeed, for a few days, according to what seemed good to them, were chastening, but He for profit, to be partakers of His separation;
11and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it — it doth yield.
12Wherefore, the hanging-down hands and the loosened knees set ye up;
13and straight paths make for your feet, that that which is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be healed;
14peace pursue with all, and the separation, apart from which no one shall see the Lord,
15looking diligently over lest any one be failing of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up may give trouble, and through this many may be defiled;
16lest any one be a fornicator, or a profane person, as Esau, who in exchange for one morsel of food did sell his birthright,
17for ye know that also afterwards, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was disapproved of, for a place of reformation he found not, though with tears having sought it.
18For ye came not near to the mount touched and scorched with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19and a sound of a trumpet, and a voice of sayings, which those having heard did entreat that a word might not be added to them,
20for they were not bearing that which is commanded, ‘And if a beast may touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or with an arrow shot through,’
21and, (so terrible was the sight,) Moses said, ‘I am fearful exceedingly, and trembling.’
22But, ye came to Mount Zion, and to a city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of messengers,
23to the company and assembly of the first-born in heaven enrolled, and to God the judge of all, and to spirits of righteous men made perfect,
24and to a mediator of a new covenant — Jesus, and to blood of sprinkling, speaking better things than that of Abel!
25See, may ye not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape who refused him who upon earth was divinely speaking — much less we who do turn away from him who [speaketh] from heaven,
26whose voice the earth shook then, and now hath he promised, saying, ‘Yet once — I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven;’
27and this — ‘Yet once’ — doth make evident the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been made, that the things not shaken may remain;
28wherefore, a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving, may we have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and religious fear;
29for also our God [is] a consuming fire.
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