Hebrews
12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us 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,
12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint
when thou art rebuked of him:
12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth.
12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son
is he whom the father chasteneth not?
12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are
ye bastards, and not sons.
12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we
gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the
Father of spirits, and live?
12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;
but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby.
12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord:
12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one
morsel of meat sold his birthright.
12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the
blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though
he sought it carefully with tears.
12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that
burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they
that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any
more:
12:20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a
beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a
dart:
12:21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and
quake:)
12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect,
12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who
refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet
once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
12:27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things
that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain.
12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear:
12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
