12:1 Therefore since we ourselves have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every impediment, and the sin that so easily distracts, and let us run with endurance the race that is prescribed for us,
12:2 fixing our gaze upon Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who rather than the joy set before him endured a cross, disregarding its shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners · such opposition · against himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed as you struggle against · sin.
12:5 And have you forgotten the word of encouragement that speaks to you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose heart when corrected by him.
12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and corrects with punishment everyone whom he receives as a son.”
12:7 Endure your trials as divine discipline. God is treating you as sons. · For what son is there whom a father does not discipline?
12:8 But if you are left without discipline, in which all sons share, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
12:9 Furthermore, · we had · our natural fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Should we not much · more submit ourselves to the Father of spirits and live?
12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share · his holy character.
12:11 All · discipline at the time seems not to be pleasant, but painful; but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12:12 Therefore strengthen your drooping hands and · weakened knees
12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.
12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
12:15 Take care that no one forfeits the grace of God; and that no root of bitterness grows up and causes trouble and by it many are defiled.
12:16 that no one becomes immoral and profane like Esau, who gave up his inheritance rights in return for a single meal. ·
12:17 For you know that even afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance, even though he sought the blessing earnestly with tears.
12:18 For you have not come to something that can be touched, · to a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a whirlwind;
12:19 · to the blast of a trumpet and a sound of words which made those who heard it beg that no further message be given to them,
12:20 for they could not endure the order that was given: “If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
12:21 And so awesome was the spectacle that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
12:22 On the contrary, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels, to a joyful assembly,
12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn whose names are inscribed in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect,
12:24 and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to sprinkled blood speaking more effectively than the blood of Abel.
12:25 Take care not to disregard the one who is speaking! For if those did not escape when they disregarded the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven.
12:26 At that time his · voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more will I shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”
12:27 The phrase, · “Yet once more,” declares the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
12:28 Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and in this way worship God in an acceptable manner, · with reverence and awe,
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