Hebrews 12

12 ¹So, with so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's strip off every weight and the sin that clings so tightly, and run with endurance the race laid out before us. ²Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of our Father's throne. ³Weigh how he endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so you don't grow weary or lose heart.

⁴In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵Have you forgotten the encouragement addressing you as sons? "My son, don't dismiss our Father's discipline, or lose heart when he corrects you. ^a a v5 Hebrews quotes Proverbs to show that our Father's discipline is the unmistakable mark of his love — he trains his sons and daughters as a Father, never as a distant judge. ⁶For our Father disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."

⁷It is for discipline that you endure. Our Father is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸If you lack the discipline all children share, you're illegitimate, not sons. ⁹Then too, we had physical fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shouldn't we submit far more to the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰They disciplined us briefly as they saw fit; he disciplines us for our good, so we may share his holiness. ¹¹For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. ¹²Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³and make straight paths for your feet, so the lame limb won't be dislocated but instead healed.

Pursue Peace and Holiness

¹⁴Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see our Father. ¹⁵Watch that no one falls short of our Father's grace, that no root of bitterness grows up to cause trouble and make many unclean, ¹⁶that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. ¹⁷You know that afterward, wanting to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity to reverse the decision, though he sought the blessing with tears. ^b b v17 Esau traded his birthright for a single meal (Gen 25) and later could not recover his father's blessing, even weeping for it (Gen 27:34–38).

¹⁸For you have not come to what can be touched, and blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and storm, ¹⁹and a trumpet blast, and a voice of words, whose hearers begged no more be said to them. ²⁰For they could not bear the command: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." ²¹Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, city of the living Father, heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless angels in joyful assembly, ²³and to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and to our Father, judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to sprinkled blood speaking a better word than Abel's blood.

²⁵See that you don't refuse the One speaking. If those who refused the One warning them on earth didn't escape, how much less will we, if we turn from the One warning from heaven.

²⁶Then his voice shook the earth; now he has promised: "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." ^c c v26 Quoted from Haggai 2:6 — our Father's promise of a final, greater shaking of all creation.

²⁷The phrase "Yet once more" signals removal of shaken things—that is, created things—so the unshaken may remain. ²⁸So, receiving an unshakable kingdom, let's hold on to thankfulness and offer our Father acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our Father is a consuming fire.