Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings
so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set
before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne
of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against
himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your
struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of
shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that
addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating
you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not
discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have
participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we
respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of
spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it
seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we
may share his holiness. For 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.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak
knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame
may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace
with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see
the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God;
that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by
it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy
like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know
that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it
with tears.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and
darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a
voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be
spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given,
“If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed,
so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal
gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the
righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than
the blood of Abel.
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did
not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much
less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that
time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once
more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This
phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are
shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things
that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for
receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to
God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a
consuming fire.
