Hebrews 12
The Chastening of the
Lord |
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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,
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2 |
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.
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3 |
For consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds.
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4 |
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin.
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5 |
And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children,
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My son, despise not thou the chastening of the
Lord, |
nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him: |
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6 |
for whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth,
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7 |
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with
you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth
not?
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8 |
But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not
sons.
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9 |
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?
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10 |
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.
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11 |
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.
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Warning against
Rejecting God's Grace |
12 |
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees; Is. 35.3
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13 |
and make straight paths for your feet, Prov. 4.26 lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it
rather be healed.
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14 |
Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
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looking diligently lest any man fail of
the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness Deut. 29.18 springing up trouble you, and thereby many be
defiled;
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lest there be any fornicator, or
profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. Gen. 25.29-34
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17 |
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. Gen.
27.30-40
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18 |
For ye are not come unto the mount that
might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and
darkness, and tempest,
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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: Ex. 19.16-22 ; 20.18-21 · Deut. 4.11, 12 ; 5.22-27
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(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: Ex. 19.12, 13
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and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) Deut.
9.19
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but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels,
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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,
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and to Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. Gen. 4.10
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25 |
See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on
earth, Ex. 20.19 much more shall not we escape, if we turn away
from him that speaketh from heaven:
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whose voice then shook the earth: but now
he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only,
but also heaven. Hag. 2.6
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27 |
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.
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28 |
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which
cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
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29 |
for our God is a consuming fire. Deut. 4.24
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