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since we are surrounded by such a large cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is marked out in front of us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your own blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:
“My son, do not lightly regard the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when He rebukes you;
6 for the Lord disciplines those who He loves,
and chastises everyone whom He receives as a son.
7 If you endure chastening, God is treating you as a son. For what son is there in a father does not discipline? 8 If you are without discipline (which everyone receives), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Furthermore, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed best to them, but God disciplines us or our good, so that we can share His holiness. 11 No disciplined seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble hands and your weakened knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, what is lame may not be put out of joint, but healed instead.
14 Pursue peace with everyone and holiness, for without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fall short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness spring up and causes trouble, and through it and many become defiled. 16 And see to it that there isn’t any immoral or godless people like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when He wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected because he found no opportunity for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.
18 You have not come to something that can be touched and that is blazing with fire, and to darkness, gloom, and storm, 19 to the blast of a trumpet, and to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that not another word would be spoken to them, 20 for they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned!” 21 Indeed, the site was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable congregation of angels in joyful gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven, to God who is charge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less for we escape if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven. 26 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.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us hold on to it by grace, so that we may serve God and acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.