Chapter 12

¹Therefore, let us too, with such a crowd of witnesses about us, throw off every impediment and the entanglement of sin, and run with determination the race for which we are entered, ²fixing our eyes upon Jesus, our leader and example in faith, who in place of the happiness that belonged to him, submitted to a cross, caring nothing for its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Think of the opposition that he encountered from those sinners against themselves, if you would not grow weary and faint-hearted. ⁴You have not yet resisted unto death in your struggle with sin, ⁵and you have forgotten the challenge addressed to you as God’s sons,

“My son, do not think lightly of the Lord’s discipline,

Or give up when he corrects you.

⁶For it is those whom the Lord loves that he disciplines,

And he chastises every son that he acknowledges.”

⁷You must submit to it as discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons. For where is there a son whom his father does not discipline? ⁸But if you have none of that discipline which all sons undergo, you are illegitimate children, and not true sons. ⁹When our earthly fathers disciplined us we treated them with respect; should we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so have life? ¹⁰For they disciplined us for a short time and as they thought proper, but he does it for our good, to make us share his holiness. ¹¹Discipline is never pleasant at the time; it is painful; but to those who are trained by it, it afterward yields the peace of character. ¹²So tighten your loosening hold! Stiffen your wavering stand! ¹³And keep your feet in straight paths, so that limbs that are lame may not be dislocated but instead be cured.

¹⁴Try to be at peace with everyone, and strive for that consecration without which no one can see the Lord. ¹⁵Be careful that no one fails to gain God’s favor, or some poisonous root may come up to trouble and contaminate you all— ¹⁶some immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his very birthright for one single meal. ¹⁷For you know how, when he afterward wished to claim the blessing, he was refused it, although he begged for it with tears, for he had no opportunity to repent of what he had done.

¹⁸For it is no tangible blazing fire that you have come up to, no blackness and darkness and storm, ¹⁹no trumpet blast and voice whose words made those who heard them beg to be told no more, ²⁰for they could not bear the order, “Even a wild animal, if it touches the mountain, must be stoned to death,” ²¹and so awful was the sight that Moses said, “I am aghast and appalled!” ²²But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels, ²³to the solemn gathering of all God’s elder sons, enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men now at last enjoying the fulfilment of their hopes, ²⁴to Jesus the negotiator of a new agreement, and to sprinkled blood that speaks more powerfully than even Abel’s. ²⁵Take care not to refuse to listen to him who is speaking. For if they could not escape because they would not listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, who reject him who is from heaven! ²⁶Then his voice shook the earth, but now his promise is, “But once more I will make not only the earth but the very heaven to tremble!” ²⁷Now the words “But once more” indicate the final removal of all that is shaken, as only created, leaving only what is unshaken to be permanent. ²⁸Let us, therefore, be thankful that the kingdom given to us cannot be shaken, and so please God by worshiping him with reverence and awe; ²⁹for our God is a consuming fire.