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Hebrews
12:1Consequently, then, since we have a vast cloud of witnesses surrounding us, we must pull out every arrowhead of the failure that opposes us from all directions, so that we can run the race before us and endure to the finish.12:2We must look to the Originator and Completer of the faith: Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross and ignored its shame. He has been seated at the right of the throne of God.
12:3Consider this One who endured such resistance from those who err, so that you won’t run out of energy and slack off.12:4You have not yet come to the point of bloodshed in your struggle against failure,12:5and you have been oblivious to the intercession which contends with you as with children:
“My child, do not take the Master’s training lightly, and do not slack off when he puts you under examination.12:6For whoever the Master loves he trains, and he will punish any child he calls his own.”
12:7So if you are enduring training, it’s because you are God’s children. After all, what child is not trained by their parents?12:8So if you are not being trained— and we are all well familiar with that— you are not true children but illegitimate.12:9We have been trained by our physical parents, and we respected them for it. Should we not be all the more supportive of the Father of our spirits and live?12:10They trained us for a few days in the way they thought was best, but that One does it for our benefit so we can have a part in his holiness.12:11Now of course no training is a joy when we’re in it, but a time of sadness. Yet it results in peace and justice for those who are conditioned by it.
12:12So flex those limp hands and numb knees!12:13Make level paths for your feet so the lame will not twist an ankle but instead be healed.12:14Pursue peace with everyone, and also holiness, without which nobody will see the Master.12:15Make sure nobody is left out of the favor of God, and that no root of bitterness sprouts up to crowd you out and infect you.12:16Also watch out for anyone who is promiscuous or is godless like Esau, who traded his birthright for a meal.12:17You know that afterwards he was denied the blessing of inheritance, and he could not get it back from his father, though he sought it with tears.
12:18For you have not come to the place where you could feel the fire, the darkness, the gloom, and the tornado,12:19hearing the trumpet blast and the sound of proclamation, which made those who heard it beg for it to stop.12:20They could not bear the warning that even if a wild animal touched the mountain it would have to be stoned.12:21The spectacle was so frightening that Moses said, “I am terrified and shaking!”112:22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the heavenly city of the living God, Jerusalem. You have come to many thousands of Messengers12:23in a universal gathering and assembly of the firstborn, having been registered in the heavens. You have come to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of those who have been justified.12:24And you have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new unilateral contract, and to a sprinkling of blood that speaks to us in a better way than Abel.
12:25Be very careful that you do not reject the One who speaks. For if there was no escape for those who rejected the divine revelation given on earth, how much more so for us if we turn from the One from the heavens?12:26His voice once shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the sky!”12:27That phrase, “once more,” makes it clear that what will be shaken— the created things— will be taken away, leaving only that which cannot be shaken.12:28So then, by accepting the unshakable kingdom, let us be grateful and offer divine service that is pleasing to God, with precaution and awe—12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
- 1This refers to when God came to Mount Sinai during the Exodus.