Hebrews 12
12
We Also Should Follow Jesus’ Example
1We have all these great people around us as examples. Their lives tell us what faith means. So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. 2We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. 3Think about Jesus. He patiently endured the angry insults that sinful people were shouting at him. Think about him so that you won’t get discouraged and stop trying.
God Is Like a Father
4You are struggling against sin, but you have not had to give up your life for the cause. 5You are children of God, and he speaks words of comfort to you. You have forgotten these words:
“My child, don’t think the Lord’s discipline is worth nothing,
and don’t stop trying when he corrects you.
6The Lord disciplines everyone he loves;
he punishes everyone he accepts as a child.” Proverbs 3:11-12
7So accept sufferings like a father’s discipline. God does these things to you like a father correcting his children. You know that all children are disciplined by their fathers. 8So, if you never receive the discipline that every child must have, you are not true children and don’t really belong to God. 9We have all had fathers here on earth who corrected us with discipline. And we respected them. So it is even more important that we accept discipline from the Father of our spirits. If we do this, we will have life. 10Our fathers on earth disciplined us for a short time in the way they thought was best. But God disciplines us to help us so that we can be holy like him. 11We don’t enjoy discipline when we get it. It is painful. But later, after we have learned our lesson from it, we will enjoy the peace that comes from doing what is right.
Be Careful How You Live
12You have become weak, so make yourselves strong again. 13Live in the right way so that you will be saved and your weakness will not cause you to be lost.
14Try to live in peace with everyone. And try to keep your lives free from sin. Anyone whose life is not holy will never see the Lord. 15Be careful that no one fails to get God’s grace. Be careful that no one loses their faith and becomes like a bitter weed growing among you. Someone like that can ruin your whole group. 16Be careful that no one commits sexual sin. And be careful that no one is like Esau and never thinks about God. As the oldest son, Esau would have inherited everything from his father. But he sold all that for a single meal. 17You remember that after Esau did this, he wanted to get his father’s blessing. He wanted that blessing so much that he cried. But his father refused to give him the blessing, because Esau could find no way to change what he had done.
18You have not come to a place that can be seen and touched, like the mountain the people of Israel saw, which was burning with fire and covered with darkness, gloom, and storms. 19There is no sound of a trumpet or a voice speaking words like those they heard. When they heard the voice, they begged never to hear another word. 20They did not want to hear the command: “If anything, even an animal, touches the mountain, it must be killed with stones.”#Quote from Ex. 19:12-13. 21What they saw was so terrible that Moses said, “I am shaking with fear.”#Quote from Deut. 9:19.#12:18-21 These verses refer to things that happened to the people of Israel in the time of Moses as described in Ex. 19.
22But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.#12:22 Jerusalem Here, the spiritual city of God’s people. You have come to a place where thousands of angels have gathered to celebrate. 23You have come to the meeting of God’s firstborn#12:23 firstborn The first son born in a Jewish family had the most important place in the family and received special blessings. All of God’s children are like that. children. Their names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all people. And you have come to the spirits of good people who have been made perfect. 24You have come to Jesus—the one who brought the new agreement from God to his people. You have come to the sprinkled blood#12:24 sprinkled blood The blood (death) of Jesus. that tells us about better things than the blood of Abel.
25Be careful and don’t refuse to listen when God speaks. Those people refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth. And they did not escape. Now God is speaking from heaven. So now it will be worse for those who refuse to listen to him. 26When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth. But now he has promised, “Once again I will shake the earth, but I will also shake heaven.”#Quote from Hag. 2:6. 27The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was created will be destroyed—that is, the things that can be shaken. And only what cannot be shaken will remain.
28So we should be thankful because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And because we are thankful, we should worship God in a way that will please him. We should do this with respect and fear, 29because our God is like a fire that can destroy us.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Hebrews 12
12
Running the Race with Discipline
1Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us,
2focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
4In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed.
5Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons? “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai or lose heart when you are corrected by Him,
6because Adonai disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He accepts.”
7It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline?
8But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness.
11Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble!
13And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed.
14Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.
16Also see to it that there is no immoral or godless person—like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
17For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no chance for repentance, though he begged for it with tears.
Entering the Unshakeable Kingdom
18For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and storm,
19and to the blast of a shofar and a voice whose words made those who heard it beg that not another word be spoken to them.
20For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
21So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am quaking with fear.”
22But you have come to Mount Zion— to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, a joyous gathering,
23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are written in a scroll in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous ones made perfect,
24and to Yeshua, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than the blood of Abel.
25See to it that you do not refuse the One who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the One who was warning them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject the One who warns us from heaven.
26His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”
27Now this phrase, “Yet once more,” shows the removal of those things that are shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude—through this we may offer worship in a manner pleasing to God, with reverence and awe.
29For our God is a consuming fire.
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