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101 FOR THE LAW CONTAINS but a shadow, and no true image, of the good things which were to come; it provides for the same sacrifices year after year, and with these it can never bring the worshippers to perfection for all time. 2 If it could, these sacrifices would surely have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any sense of sin. 3 But instead, in these sacrifices year after year sins are brought to mind, 4 because sins can never be removed by the blood of bulls and goats.
5 That is why, at his coming into the world, he says:
19 SO NOW, MY FRIENDS, the blood of Jesus makes us free to enter boldly into the sanctuary 20 by the new, living way which he has opened for us through the curtain, the way of his flesh. 21 We have, moreover, a great priest set over the household of God; 22 so let us make our approach in sincerity of heart and full assurance of faith, our guilty hearts sprinkled clean, our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us be firm and unswerving in the confession of our hope, for the Giver of the promise may be trusted. 24 We ought to see how each of us may best arouse others to love and active goodness, 25 not staying away from our meetings, as some do, but rather encouraging one another, all the more because you see the Day drawing near.
26 For if we persist in sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains: 27 only a terrifying expectation of judgement and a fierce fire which will consume God's enemies. 28 If a man disregards the Law of Moses, he is put to death without pity on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 Think how much more severe a penalty that man will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and affronted God's gracious Spirit! 30 For we know who it is that has said, 'Justice is mine: I will repay'; and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' 31 It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember the days gone by, when, newly enlightened, you met the challenge of great sufferings and held firm. 33 Some of you were abused and tormented to make a public show, while others stood loyally by those who were so treated. 34 For indeed you shared the sufferings of the prisoners, and you cheerfully accepted the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you possessed something better and more lasting. 35 Do not then throw away your confidence, for it carries a great reward. 36 You need endurance, if you are to do God's will and win what he has promised. 37 For 'soon, very soon' (in the words of Scripture), 'he who is to come will come; he will not delay;
111 AND WHAT IS FAITH?
Faith gives substance to our hopes, and makes us certain of realities we do not see.
2 It is for their faith that the men of old stand on record.
3 By faith we perceive that the universe was fashioned by the word of God, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.
4 By faith Abel offered a sacrifice greater than Cain's, and through faith his goodness was attested, for his offerings had God's approval; and through faith he continued to speak after his death.
5 By faith Enoch was carried away to another life without passing through death; he was not to be found, because God had taken him. For it is the testimony of Scripture that before he was taken he had pleased God, 6 and without faith it is impossible to please him; for anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who search for him.
7 By faith Noah, divinely warned about the unseen future, took good heed and built an ark to save his household. Through his faith he put the whole world in the wrong, and made good his own claim to the righteousness which comes of faith.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed the call to go out to a land destined for himself and his heirs, and left home without knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith he settled as an alien in the land promised him, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs to the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11 By faith even Sarah herself received strength to conceive, though she was past the age, because she judged that he who had promised would keep faith; 12 and therefore from one man, and one as good as dead, there sprang descendants numerous as the stars or as the countless grains of sand on the sea-shore.
13 All these persons died in faith. They were not yet in possession of the things promised, but had seen them far ahead and hailed them, and confessed themselves no more than strangers or passing travellers on earth. 14 Those who use such language show plainly that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If their hearts had been in the country they had left, they could have found opportunity to return. 16 Instead, we find them longing for a better country - I mean, the heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he has a city ready for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when the test came, offered up Isaac: he had received the promises, and yet he was is on the point of offering his only son, 18 of whom he had been told,
'Through the line of Isaac your posterity shall be traced.'
19 For he reckoned that God had power even to raise from the dead - and from the dead, he did, in a sense, receive him back.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau and spoke of 21 things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshipped God, leaning on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, spoke of the departure of Israel from Egypt, and instructed them what to do with his bones.
23 By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw what a fine child he was; they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 preferring to suffer hardship with the people of God rather than enjoy the transient pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the stigma that rests on God's Anointed greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed upon the coming day of recompense. 27 By faith he left Egypt, and not because he feared the king's anger; for he was resolute, as one who saw the invisible God.
28 By faith he celebrated the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroying angel might not touch the first-born of Israel. 29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though it were dry land, whereas the Egyptians, when they attempted the crossing, were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled on seven successive days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab escaped the doom of the unbelievers, because she had given the spies a kindly welcome.
32 Need I say more? Time is too short for me to tell the stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. 33 Through faith they overthrew kingdoms, established justice, saw God's promises fulfilled. They muzzled ravening lions, 34 quenched the fury of fire, escaped death by the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength, they grew powerful in war, they put foreign armies to rout. 35 Women received back their dead raised to life. Others were tortured to death, disdaining release, to win a better resurrection. 36 Others, again, had to face jeers and flogging, even fetters and prison bars. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were put to the sword, they went about dressed in skins of sheep or goats, in poverty, distress, and misery. 38 They were too good for this world. They were refugees in deserts and on the hills, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These also, one and all, are commemorated for their faith; and yet they did not enter upon the promised inheritance, because, with us in mind. 40 God had made a better plan, that only in company with us should they reach their perfection.
121 AND WHAT OF OURSELVES? With all these witnesses to faith around us like a cloud, we must throw off every encumbrance, every sin to which we cling, and run with resolution the race for which we are entered, 2 our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom faith depends from start to finish: Jesus who, for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him, endured the cross, making light of its disgrace, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Think of him who submitted to such opposition from sinners: that will help you not to lose heart and grow faint. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 You have forgotten the text of Scripture which addresses you as sons and appeals to you in these words:
14 Aim at peace with all men, and a holy life, for without that no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that there is no one among you who forfeits the grace of God, no bitter, noxious weed growing up to poison the whole, 16 no immoral person, no one worldly-minded like Esau. He sold his birthright for a single meal, 17 and you know that although he wanted afterwards to claim the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no way open for second thoughts, although he strove, to the point of tears, to find one.
18 REMEMBER WHERE YOU STAND: not before the palpable, blazing fire of Sinai, with the darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, 19 the trumpet-blast and the oracular voice, which they heard, and begged to hear no more; 20 for they could not bear the command, 'If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.' 21 So appalling was the sight, that Moses said, 'I shudder with fear.'
22 No, you stand before Mount Zion and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, before myriads of angels, 23 the full concourse and assembly of the first-born citizens of heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of good men made perfect, 24 and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, whose sprinkled blood has better things to tell than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse to hear the voice that speaks. Those who refused to hear the oracle speaking on earth found no escape; still less shall we escape if we refuse to hear the One who speaks from heaven. 26 Then indeed his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Yet once again I will shake not earth alone, but the heavens also.' 27 The words 'once again' - and only once - imply that the shaking of these created things means their removal, and then what is not shaken will remain. 28 The kingdom we are given is unshakable; let us therefore give thanks to God, and so worship him as he would be worshipped, with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a devouring fire.
131 NEVER CEASE TO LOVE your fellow-Christians. 2 Remember to show hospitality. There are some who, by so doing, have entertained angels without knowing it.
3 Remember those in prison as if you were there with them; and those who are being maltreated, for you like them are still in the world.
4 Marriage is honourable; let us all keep it so, and the I marriage-bond inviolate; for God's judgement will fall on fornicators and adulterers.
5 Do not live for money; be content with what you have; for God himself has said, 'I will never leave you or desert you'; 6 and so we can take courage and say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?'
7 Remember your leaders, those who first spoke God's message to you; and reflecting upon the outcome of their life and work, follow the example of their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. 9 So do not be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings; it is good that our souls should gain their strength from the grace of God, and not from scruples about what we eat, which have never done any good to those who were governed by them.
10 Our altar is one from which the priests of the sacred tent have no right to eat. 11 As you know, those animals whose blood is brought as a sin-offering by the high priest into the sanctuary, have their bodies burnt outside the camp, 12 and therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to consecrate the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the stigma that he bore. 14 For here we have no permanent home, but we are seekers after the city which is to come. 15 Through Jesus, then, let us continually offer up to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, the tribute of lips which acknowledge, his name, 16 and never forget to show kindness and to share what you have with others; for such are the sacrifices which God approves.
17 Obey your leaders and defer to them; for they are tireless in their concern for you, as men who must render an account. Let it be a happy task for them, and not pain and grief, for that would bring you no advantage.
18 Pray for us; for we are convinced that our conscience is clear; our one desire is always to do what is right. 19 All the more earnestly I ask for your prayers, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 May the God of peace,
who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great Shepherd of the sheep,
by the blood of the eternal covenant,
21 make you perfect in all goodness
so that you may do his will,
and may he make of us what he would have us be
through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory for ever and ever!
Amen.
22 I beg you, brothers, bear with this exhortation;
for it is after all a short letter.
23 I have news for you:
our friend Timothy has been released;
and if he comes in time he will be with me when I see you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all God's people.
Greetings to you from our Italian friends.
25 God's grace be with you all!