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,
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.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
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:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;
for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.
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?
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.
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.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees;
And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no
man shall see the Lord:
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;
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
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.
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched,
and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and
tempest,
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which
voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be
spoken to them any more:
(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:
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake:)
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,
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,
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of
Abel.
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:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath
promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but
also heaven.
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.
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved,
let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear:
For our God is a consuming fire.
~ May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word! ~