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].
Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies 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].
simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus, our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize. He, for the sake of the joy which lay before Him, patiently endured the cross, looking with contempt upon its shame, and afterwards seated Himself-- where He still sits--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.
Therefore, if you would escape becoming weary and faint-hearted, compare your own sufferings with those of Him who endured such hostility directed against Him by sinners.
4 While you have struggled against [being tempted to] sin, you have not yet bled [and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did].
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted so as to endanger your lives;
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 you have quite forgotten the encouraging words which are addressed to you as sons, and which say, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not 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 those whom the Lord loves 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].
The sufferings that you are enduring are for your discipline. 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].
And if you are left without discipline, of which every true son has had a share, that shows that you are bastards, and not true 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]!
Besides this, our earthly fathers used to discipline us and we treated them with respect, and shall we not be still more submissive to the Father of our 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.
It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character.
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, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy, but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed through its training a result full of peace--namely, righteousness.
12 So, [instead of acting as though you were spiritually exhausted], renew yourselves [MET] spiritually.
Therefore strengthen the drooping hands and paralysed 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.
and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put entirely out of joint
14 Try to live peacefully with all people. Seek to be holy, since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy.
but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will 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.
Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be 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.
lest there be a fornicator, or an ungodly person like Esau, who, in return for a single meal, parted with the birthright which belonged to him.
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 afterwards, when he wished to secure the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no opportunity for undoing what he had done, though he sought the blessing 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 have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words--
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.
a sound of such a kind that those who heard it entreated that no more should be added.
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 the order which had been given, "Even a wild beast, if it touches the mountain, 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 tremble with fear."
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 have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless 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 great festal gathering and Church of the first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of righteous 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.
and to Jesus the negotiator of a new Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks in more gracious tones 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]
Be careful not to refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they of old did not escape unpunished when they refused to listen to him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape who turn a deaf ear to Him who now speaks 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.”
His voice then shook the earth, but now we have His promise, "Yet again I will, once for all, cause not only the earth to tremble, but Heaven also."
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.
Here the words "Yet again, once for all" denote 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.
Therefore, receiving, as we now do, a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us cherish thankfulness so that we may ever offer to God an acceptable service, with godly reverence and awe.
29 Remember that the God we [worship/serve] is like a fire that burns up everything [that is impure] [MET]!
For our God is also a consuming fire.
