Hebrews 12
1THEREFORE, let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding, us, lay aside every weight, and the easily besetting sin, and with patience run the race that is set before us,
2looking away to the author and finisher of the faith, Jesus; who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against him, that ye become not weary, fainting in your souls.
4Not yet did ye resist unto blood, contending against sin;
5and ye have forgotten the exhortation, which discourses with you as with sons: My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when reproved by him;
6For whom the Lord loves he chastens, And scourges every son whom he receives.
7If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chastens not?
8But if ye are without chastening, of which all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9Furthermore, we had fathers of our flesh, who chastened us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
10For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11Now all chastening for the present indeed seems not joyous, but grievous; but afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness, to those who have been exercised thereby.
12Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13and make straight paths for your feet, that the lame be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed.
14Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord;
15looking diligently, lest any one come short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and the many be thereby defiled;
16lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright.
17For ye know that he also afterward, when he wished to inherit the blessing, was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought after it with tears.
18For ye have not come to a mount that is touched, and burning with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they who heard refused that more should be spoken to them;
20for they could not bear that which was commanded, Even if a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;
21and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said: I fear, and tremble.
22But ye have come to mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
23to the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just ones made perfect;
24and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better than Abel.
25See that ye refuse not him who speaks; for if they did not escape, refusing him who declared the divine will on earth, much more shall not we, who turn away from him who speaks from heaven;
26whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying: Yet once more I shake, not the earth only, but also heaven.
27And this, Yet once more, signifies the removing of the things shaken, as of things that have been made, that the things which are not shaken may remain.
28Wherefore, receiving a kingdom which can not be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear;
29for our God is a consuming fire.