Hebrews 12
1 Since, then, we have so great a cloud of witnesses placed before us, laying aside every incumbrance, and the sin which easily entangles us, let us run, with perseverance, the race set before us;
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].
2 looking to Jesus, the leader and perfecter of the faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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].
3 Consider him who, from sinners, endured such opposition against himself, lest, becoming discouraged in your minds, you grow weary;
[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.
4 you have not yet resisted to blood, struggling against this sin.
While you have struggled against [being tempted to] sin, you have not yet bled [and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did].
5 Besides, have you forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's chastisement, neither faint when you are rebuked by him:
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],
6 for whom the Lord loves he chastises, and scourges every son whom he receives."
because it is everyone whom he loves whom the Lord disciplines, and he punishes everyone whom he accepts as his child.
7 If you endure chastisement, God deals with you as his children. For what son is there whom his father does not chastise?
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].
8 But if you be without chastisement, of which all sons are partakers, certainly you are bastards, and not sons.
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].
9 Farther, we have had fathers of our flesh, who chastised us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live?
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]!
10 For they, indeed, during a very few days, chastised us according to their pleasure; but he, for our advantage, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
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.
11 Now, no chastisement, indeed, for the present, seems to be matter of joy, but of sorrow. Nevertheless, afterward it returns the peaceful fruit of righteousness to them who are trained by it.
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.
12 Wherefore, bring to their right position, the arms that hang down, and the weakened knees.
So, [instead of acting as though you were spiritually exhausted], renew yourselves [MET] spiritually.
13 And make smooth paths for your feet, that that which is lame, may not be put out of joint, but that it may rather be healed.
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.
14 Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which, no one shall see the Lord:
Try to live peacefully with all people. Seek to be holy, since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy.
15 carefully observing, lest any one come short of the favor of God; lest some bitter root springing up, trouble you, and by it many be polluted;
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.
16 lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau; who, for one meal, gave away his birthrights.
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.
17 And you know, that although afterward he wished to inherit the blessing, he was reprobated: for he found no scope for effecting a change, though he earnestly sought it with tears.
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.
18 Now you are not come to a tangible mountain, which burned with fire; and to blackness, and to darkness, and to tempest,
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.
19 and to the sound of a trumpet, and to the voice of words, the hearers of which earnestly entreated that a word more might not be addressed to them:
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.
20 for they could not bear this threat, "Even if a beast touch the mountain, it shall shall be stoned."
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.
21 And so terrible was the appearance, that Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and tremble."
Truly, because Moses was terrified after seeing what happened [on the mountain], he said, “I am trembling because I am very afraid!”
22 But you are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of messengers,
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.
23 to the general assembly and congregation of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
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].
24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new institution, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel.
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.
25 Take care that you refuse not him who speaks: for if they did not escape, who refused him who spoke on earth, much more we shall not escape, who turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
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]
26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying, "Yet once I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens."
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.”
27 Now this speech, "YET ONCE," signifies the removing of the things shaken, as of things which were constituted, that the things not shaken may remain.
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.
28 Wherefore, we having received a kingdom not shaken, let us have gratitude, by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and religious fear.
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.
29 For truly our God is a consuming fire.
Remember that the God we [worship/serve] is like a fire that burns up everything [that is impure] [MET]!
