Hebrews 12
1 We [know about] many people like that [who showed they trusted in God]. They are like a crowd of spectators [who are cheering for us inside a stadium] [MET]. Knowing that, we must put away all the things that hinder us, [as a runner puts aside everything that would hinder him because they are heavy] [MET]. Especially we must put away sinful actions that [hinder us, as a runner] sets aside clothes he does not need, clothes that would entangle him [MET]. Let us [wholeheartedly strive to achieve what God has planned for us, as someone] in a race wholeheartedly runs the course that is before him [MET].
Seeing then that we are encircled with this great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin that clings about us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 And let us [keep our minds on] Jesus, [as a runner] keeps his eyes on [the goal] [MET]. Jesus is the one we should imitate in the way he perfectly trusted [God. When he died on] the cross he endured it as he suffered greatly [MTY], instead of [thinking about the things he would] rejoice about [later]. He disregarded being disgraced by [dying that way]. He is now sitting at the place of highest honor [MTY] at the throne [where God rules].
looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured a cross, despising shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 [Jesus] patiently endured it when sinful people acted so hostilely against him. Try to act the way he did, so that you do not give up [trusting] God or become discouraged.
Compare yourselves with him who endured such hostility against himself at the hands of sinners, lest you grow weary, fainting in your souls.
4 While you have struggled against [being tempted to] sin, you have not yet bled [and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did].
Not yet have you resisted unto blood in your fight against sin;
5 Do not forget [RHQ] these words [that Solomon spoke to his son, that are the same as God] would exhort you as his children: My child, pay attention [LIT] when the Lord is disciplining you, and do not be discouraged when the Lord punishes you [DOU],
and have you forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as sons? My son, do not despise the training of the Lord, Nor faint when he corrects you;
6 because it is everyone whom he loves whom the Lord disciplines, and he punishes everyone whom he accepts as his child.
For it is those whom he loves that he disciplines, And he scourges every son whom he acknowledges.
7 It is in order that God may discipline you that he requires you to endure the disagreeable things [that happen to you]. [When God disciplines you] he is treating you as a father treats his children. All fathers [RHQ] discipline their children [LIT].
It is for discipline that you are enduring these sufferings. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 So, if you have not experienced God disciplining you just like he disciplines all his other children, you are [not true children of God] [MET]. [You are like] illegitimate children; [no father disciplines them].
If you are left without discipline, in which all children share, then are you bastards and not sons.
9 Furthermore, our natural fathers disciplined us [when we were young], and we respected them for doing that. So we should certainly more readily accept God our spiritual Father disciplining us, with the result that we live eternally [RHQ]!
Furthermore, our earthly fathers used to discipline us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 Our natural fathers disciplined us for a short time in a way that they considered right, [but it wasn’t always right], but God always disciplines us [in a right way], to help us. He does it so that we may be holy as he is.
For they only disciplined us for a few days, as seemed good to them; but he does it for our profit, that we may share his holiness.
11 During the time that God is disciplining us, that does not seem to be something about which we should rejoice. Instead, it is something that pains us. But later it causes those who have learned from it to be peaceful and to [live] righteously.
Now no discipline seems for the present to be joyous, but grievous; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained under it.
12 So, [instead of acting as though you were spiritually exhausted], renew yourselves [MET] spiritually.
Wherefore lift up your listless hands, strengthen your feeble knees;
13 Go straight forward [in your Christian life] [MET], in order that believers who are uncertain about their faith [will imitate you] and not ([leave God’s way/] useless [to God]) [MET]. Instead, they will be spiritually restored [MET] as an injured and useless limb is restored.
make straight path for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
14 Try to live peacefully with all people. Seek to be holy, since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy.
Run swiftly after peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
15 Beware that none of you stops [trusting in] God, [who has done kind things for us that we did not deserve] (OR, Beware that you have never [experienced] God kindly [saving you]). Be on guard lest any of you [act in an evil way towards others], because your doing that will [grow like] [MET] a root [grows into a big plant], and the result [of your] doing that will be that many believers will sin and become unacceptable to God.
Look carefully that there be no one who falls back from the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up to trouble you, and by its means many become defiled.
16 Do not let anyone be immoral, or be irreligious as Esau was. He exchanged the rights he had as a firstborn son for only one meal.
Take care lest there be any fornicator or scorner like Esau among you, who for one meal sold his birthright.
17 You know that after he did that, he wanted to receive [what his father would promise to give him if] he blessed him. But [his father] was unable [to change what he had already done]. And Esau found no way to change things, even though he sought tearfully to do that.
For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; he found no room for repentance, though he sought it earnestly, with tears.
18 In coming [to God] you have not [experienced things like what the Israeli people experienced] at [Sinai] Mountain. [They] approached [a mountain that God told them they] should not touch. [They approached] a blazing fire, and it was gloomy and dark [DOU], and there was a hurricane/cyclone.
For you are not come to a palpable and enkindled fire,
19 They heard a trumpet sounding and they heard [God] speak. The result was that those who heard it pleaded for God not to speak to them like that again.
nor to gloom and darkness and tempest and the blare of a trumpet and an audible voice. Those who heard that voice entreated that no word more should be spoken to them.
20 When [God] commanded them saying, “If [a person or] even an animal touches this mountain, [you] must [kill him/it by] throwing stones at him/it,” they were terrified.
For they could not endure that which was enjoined, Even if a wild beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned to death;
21 Truly, because Moses was terrified after seeing what happened [on the mountain], he said, “I am trembling because I am very afraid!”
and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble.
22 Instead, [it is as though] you have come to [the presence of God in heaven] [MET]. [That is like what your ancestors did when they came to worship] God on Zion Hill, in Jerusalem, in the city of God who is all-powerful. You have come (OR, you are coming) to where there are countless angels, who are rejoicing as they have gathered together.
On the contrary you are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable hosts of angels,
23 You have joined all the believers [who have privileges like] firstborn sons, whose names [God] has written down in heaven. You have come to God, who will judge everyone. You have come to where the spirits of God’s people are, people who lived righteously [before they died], and who now have been made perfect [in heaven].
to the festal assemblage and church of the firstborn, registered in heaven, to a Judge who is God of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 You have come to Jesus, who arranged a new covenant [between us and God]. You have accepted [what he accomplished when] his blood flowed [when he died on the cross. His doing that made it possible for God to forgive us]. That is better than the blood of Abel, [who just] wanted revenge because his brother Cain murdered him.
to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to his sprinkled Blood whose message cries louder than that of Abel.
25 Beware that you do not refuse to listen to [God] who is speaking to you. The Israeli people did not escape [God punishing them] when [Moses] (OR, [God]) warned them here on earth. So we shall surely not escape [God punishing us] if we reject him when he warns us from heaven! [RHQ]
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape punishment when they refused to listen to their instructor on earth, much less shall we escape if we turn away from him who is teaching us from heaven;
26 The earth shook [PRS] then when he spoke [MTY] [at Sinai Mountain]. But now he has promised, “I will shake the earth again, one more time, but I will shake heaven too.”
whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, Once again, once for all, I make not only earth, but heaven also to tremble.
27 The words “again, one more time” indicate that things [on earth] will be shaken {that [he] will shake things [on earth]}, meaning that he will set aside all that [he] has created, in order that the things [in heaven] that cannot be shaken {that nothing can shake} may remain forever.
That phrase, "Once again," signifies the removal of the things which can be shaken, created things, in order that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 So, let us thank God that we are becoming members of a kingdom that nothing can shake. Let us worship/serve God in a way that pleases him by being greatly in awe [DOU] before him.
Wherefore since we are receiving a kingdom which is unshakable, let us give thanks, and so offer acceptable worship to God, with holy awe and fear,
29 Remember that the God we [worship/serve] is like a fire that burns up everything [that is impure] [MET]!
FOR INDEED OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.
