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Hebrews 12
1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of , who for the joy that was set before him endured , despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the of God.
3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.
5You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.
9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
10For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his .
11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of to those who have been trained by it.
12Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
13and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14Follow after peace with all men, and the without which no man will see the Lord,
15looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it,
16lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
17For you know that even when he afterward to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.
18For you have not come to a that might be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,
19the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,
20for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the , it shall be stoned”.
21So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
22But you have come to Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
23to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24to Jesus, the mediator of a , and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
25See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,
26whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”
27This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have , through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
29for our God is a consuming fire.
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Questions this passage answers
How do I resist temptation?
Scripture says God always provides a way of escape, that temptation begins with desire inside us rather than with God, and that the ordinary means of resisting are watching, praying, walking by the Spirit, hiding God's word in the heart, and fleeing rather than negotiating. It does not promise that temptation stops, and it sends the tempted person to a High Priest who was tempted himself and can be approached for help.
What does the Bible say about contentment?
Scripture presents contentment as something learned rather than felt, grounded in a promise rather than in circumstances. Paul says he learned it in plenty and in hunger, Hebrews grounds it in God's word that he will never forsake us, and 1 Timothy calls godliness with contentment great gain while naming food and clothing as enough.
Who is Jesus?
Scripture introduces Jesus of Nazareth as a real man in real history who is also the eternal Word through whom everything was made. He is the promised Christ of Israel, the Son of God, crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised on the third day, and now confessed as Lord. The Bible never presents him only as a teacher, and it never lets him remain a private opinion. It records him asking his own followers the question and waiting for their answer.
Is Jesus God?
Scripture says yes, and it does not say it in one verse only. Jesus is called God directly, is said to have made all things, forgives sins, receives worship, and takes to himself words that the Old Testament reserves for Yahweh. At the same time he prays to the Father, obeys the Father and calls the Father greater. The Bible holds both together without apology, and the reader who wants an honest answer has to read the whole case rather than one proof text.