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Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares [us,] and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
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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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
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You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
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And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
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For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."
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If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
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But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
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Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected [us,] and we paid [them] respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
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For they indeed for a few days chastened [us] as seemed [best] to them, but He for [our] profit, that [we] may be partakers of His holiness.
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Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
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Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,
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and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be [dislocated,] but rather be healed.
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Pursue peace with all [people,] and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
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looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
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lest there [be] any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
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For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
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For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,
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and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard [it] begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
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(For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow."
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And so terrifying was the sight [that] Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.")
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But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
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to the general assembly and church of the firstborn [who are] registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
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to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than [that of] Abel.
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See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more [shall we not escape] if we turn away from Him who [speaks] from heaven,
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whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."
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Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
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Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
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For our God [is] a consuming fire.
