Chapter 12
1 Therefore let ’ s also , seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses , lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us , and let ’ s run with perseverance the race that is set before us ,
2 looking to Jesus , the author and perfecter of faith , who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross , despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God .
3 For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , that you don’ t grow weary , fainting in your souls .
4 You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.
5 You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children , " My son , don’ t take lightly the chastening of the Lord , nor faint when you are reproved by him ;
6 for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines , and chastises every son whom he receives ."
7 It is for discipline that you endure . God deals with you as with children , for what son is there whom his father doesn’ t discipline ?
8 But if you are without discipline , of which all have been made partakers , then you are illegitimate , and not children .
9 Furthermore , we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us , and we paid them respect . Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live ?
10 For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them , but he for our profit , that we may be partakers of his holiness.
11 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous ; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it .
12 Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees ,
13 and make straight paths for your feet , so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed .
14 Follow after peace with all men , and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord ,
15 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God , lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it ,
16 lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person , like Esau , who sold his birthright for one meal .
17 For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing , he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears .
18 For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burnt with fire , and to blackness , darkness , storm,
19 the sound of a trumpet , and the voice of words ; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them ,
20 for they could not stand that which was commanded , " If even an animal touches the mountain , it shall be stoned ".
21 So fearful was the appearance that Moses said , " I am terrified and trembling ."
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
23 to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven , to God the Judge of all , to the spirits of just men made perfect ,
24 to Jesus , the mediator of a new covenant , and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
25 See that you don’ t refuse him who speaks . For if they didn’ t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth , how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven ,
26 whose 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 ."
27 This phrase, " Yet once more " signifies the removing of those things that are shaken , as of things that have been made , that those things which are not shaken may remain .
28 Therefore , receiving a Kingdom that can’ t be shaken, let ’ s have grace , through which we serve God acceptably , with reverence and awe,
29 for our God is a consuming fire .