The Epistle to the Hebrews
12: 1Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 12:2looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 12:3For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. 12:4Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: 12:5and ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of him;
12:6For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
12:7It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what
son is there whom his father chasteneth not? 12:8But if ye are without chastening,
whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
12:9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits,
and live? 12:10For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them;
but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. 12:11All chastening
seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth
peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of
righteousness. 12:12Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied
knees; 12:13and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not
turned out of the way, but rather be healed. 12:14Follow after peace with all men,
and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord: 12:15looking
carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God; lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled; 12:16lest
there be any fornication, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat
sold his own birthright. 12:17For ye know that even when he afterward desired to
inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for a change of mind
in his father, though he sought is diligently with tears. 12:18For ye are not come unto
a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and
darkness, and tempest, 12:19and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words;
which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto
them; 12:20for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch
the mountain, it shall be stoned; 12:21and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses
said, I exceedingly fear and quake: 12:22but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of
angels, 12:23to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
12:24and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that
speaketh better than that of Abel. 12:25See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For
if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more
shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven: 12:26whose
voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will
I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. 12:27And this word, Yet
once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things
that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
12:28Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace,
whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe:
12:29for our God is a consuming fire.