Hebrews 12

Riverside(i) 1 THEREFORE, surrounded as we are by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that lies before us, 2 looking to Jesus the beginner and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured a cross, thinking little of the shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Think of him who endured such hostile speaking of sinners against him, that you may not grow weary and despondent in heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to blood in the contest against sin, 5 and you have forgotten the encouragement which reasons with you as with sons, "My son, do not think slightingly of the discipline of the Lord and be not faint-hearted when reproved by him: 6 for whom the Lord loves he disciplines and scourges every son whom he receives as his own." 7 It is for discipline that you are enduring. God is laying it upon you as upon sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, in which all share, then you are bastards and not sons. 9 Besides, we had fathers of our flesh who disciplined us and we used to reverence them. Shall we not much more be submissive to the Father of our spirits and live? 10 For they for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may share his holiness. 11 All discipline for the time being seems not joyous but grievous, but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have passed through its training. 12 So raise the relaxed hands and straighten the unstrung knees 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame limb may not be put out of joint but rather cured. 14 Follow after peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. 15 Be on your guard that no one shall fail of the grace of God, that no bitter root shall sprout up and trouble you and through it many be stained, 16 that there shall be none unchaste, or profane like Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward when he wished to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for he found no place for a change in his father's mind though he sought it earnestly with tears. 18 For you have not come to something that may be touched, ablaze with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest 19 and the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which those who heard begged not to have spoken of them. 20 For they could not bear the command, "If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned." 21 And so dreadful was the sight that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels, 23 to the festal assembly and congregation of first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which tells something better than the blood of Abel. 25 Beware of rejecting him who is speaking. For if those did not escape who rejected him who taught the divine will on earth, much less shall we if we reject him who speaks from heaven. 26 His voice then shook the earth, but now he has announced, "Yet once for all I shall shake not only the earth but also heaven." 27 And this expression "yet once for all" shows the removal of the things shaken, as of things that have been made, that the unshaken things may remain. 28 So then, since we are receiving an unshaken kingdom, let us have grace by which we may worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.