12Hebrews 12

1Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,Select Hebrews 12:1

2simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus, our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize. He, for the sake of the joy which lay before Him, patiently endured the cross, looking with contempt upon its shame, and afterwards seated Himself-- where He still sits--at the right hand of the throne of God.Select Hebrews 12:2

3Therefore, if you would escape becoming weary and faint-hearted, compare your own sufferings with those of Him who endured such hostility directed against Him by sinners.Select Hebrews 12:3

4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted so as to endanger your lives;Select Hebrews 12:4

5and you have quite forgotten the encouraging words which are addressed to you as sons, and which say, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not faint when He corrects you;Select Hebrews 12:5

6for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines: and He scourges every son whom He acknowledges."Select Hebrews 12:6

7The sufferings that you are enduring are for your discipline. God is dealing with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?Select Hebrews 12:7

8And if you are left without discipline, of which every true son has had a share, that shows that you are bastards, and not true sons.Select Hebrews 12:8

9Besides this, our earthly fathers used to discipline us and we treated them with respect, and shall we not be still more submissive to the Father of our spirits, and live?Select Hebrews 12:9

10It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character.Select Hebrews 12:10

11Now, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy, but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed through its training a result full of peace--namely, righteousness.Select Hebrews 12:11

12Therefore strengthen the drooping hands and paralysed knees,Select Hebrews 12:12

13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put entirely out of jointSelect Hebrews 12:13

14but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord.Select Hebrews 12:14

15Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be defiled;Select Hebrews 12:15

16lest there be a fornicator, or an ungodly person like Esau, who, in return for a single meal, parted with the birthright which belonged to him.Select Hebrews 12:16

17For you know that even afterwards, when he wished to secure the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no opportunity for undoing what he had done, though he sought the blessing earnestly with tears.Select Hebrews 12:17

18For you have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words--Select Hebrews 12:18

19a sound of such a kind that those who heard it entreated that no more should be added.Select Hebrews 12:19

20For they could not endure the order which had been given, "Even a wild beast, if it touches the mountain, shall be stoned to death;"Select Hebrews 12:20

21and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, "I tremble with fear."Select Hebrews 12:21

22On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels,Select Hebrews 12:22

23to the great festal gathering and Church of the first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,Select Hebrews 12:23

24and to Jesus the negotiator of a new Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks in more gracious tones than that of Abel.Select Hebrews 12:24

25Be careful not to refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they of old did not escape unpunished when they refused to listen to him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape who turn a deaf ear to Him who now speaks from Heaven.Select Hebrews 12:25

26His voice then shook the earth, but now we have His promise, "Yet again I will, once for all, cause not only the earth to tremble, but Heaven also."Select Hebrews 12:26

27Here the words "Yet again, once for all" denote the removal of the things which can be shaken--created things--in order that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.Select Hebrews 12:27

28Therefore, receiving, as we now do, a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us cherish thankfulness so that we may ever offer to God an acceptable service, with godly reverence and awe.Select Hebrews 12:28

29For our God is also a consuming fire.Select Hebrews 12:29