12 ¹ 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, Or: every clinging sin. One witness reads: the sin which all too readily distracts us. and run with resolution the race for which we are entered, 12 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, Or: who, in place of the joy that was open to him, ... endured the cross, making light of its disgrace, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

12 ³ Think of him who submitted to such opposition from sinners: that will help you not to lose heart and grow faint. 12 ⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 12 ^{5 [ Pr.3.11-12. ]} You have forgotten the text of Scripture which addresses you as sons and appeals to you in these words:

'My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline,
nor lose heart when he corrects you;
12 ⁶ for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves;
he lays the rod on every son whom he acknowledges.' 12 ⁷ You must endure it as discipline: God is treating you as sons. Can anyone be a son, who is not disciplined by his father? 12 ⁸ If you escape the discipline in which all sons share, you must be bastards and no true sons. 12 ⁹ Again, we paid due respect to the earthly fathers who disciplined us; should we not submit even more readily to our spiritual Father, and so attain life? 12 ¹⁰ They disciplined us for this short life according to their lights; but he does so for our true welfare, so that we may share his holiness. 12 ¹¹ Discipline, no doubt, is never pleasant; at the time it seems painful, but in the end it yields for those who have been trained by it the peaceful harvest of an honest life.

12 ^{12 [ Is.35.3, Sir.25.23. ]} Come, then, stiffen your drooping arms and shaking knees, and keep your steps from wavering.

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Notes: This page displays the Revised Standard Version as flowing text. The katapi New Study Bible reference section has been incorporated into the page as follows: Links to parallel passages show below passage headings. Links to Old Testament quotations in New Testament verses show after the verse number.
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Please e-mail me. © Paul Ingram 2012.