Hebrews 12

₁We have a lot of witnesses around us and that is why we must throw away everything that can stop us from doing what we must do. We must also throw away and leave sin that can easily hold us back. We must keep on believing like someone who keeps on running in a race that he must finish. ₂We must do this while we keep on looking at Jesus, because it was He who saved us and made us believe from the beginning, and He will help us believe to the end. When Jesus suffered, He knew that He would rejoice later and that is why He was patient and He accepted the shame of the cross. He suffered until He died on the cross, but now He is sitting at the most important place at the throne of God. ₃Remember how patient Jesus was when the sinful people humiliated and cursed Him. Remember what Jesus did so that you will not become discouraged and stop believing.

₄You are fighting against everything that is sinful and wrong, but you have not had to fight so hard that you were almost dying. ₅Have you forgotten that the Lord encourages you because you are his children? He said:

₇Why does God let you suffer? He does it so that you can learn to do what He wants and become patient. You must keep on believing. It is God who makes you suffer because you are his children. This is how every father teaches his child. ₈God teaches all his children this way. If He does not teach you like this, then you do not belong to Him, and then you are illegitimate children and not_true children of God. ₉I want to say something more: Our fathers were men who lived in this world. They taught us and we respected them. But we will have to obey our Father in heaven, who gives life to all, even more. If we listen to Him, we will live forever.

₁₀Because our fathers have taught us for a short while in the way they thought was good. But our heavenly Father teaches us here on earth because it is good for us and because He wants us to be holy like He is holy. ₁₁Every time He teaches us, we feel like we want to cry, and we are not happy about it. But God teaches us in such a way that we will have his peace and we will be righteous if we learn to do what He wants to teach us.

₁₂You are discouraged but you must stand up, believe and be strong. ₁₃You must keep on living in the right way and walk the straight road, then the weak believers who follow you will get up and do what God says. They will not be like people who are tired or crippled.

₁₄You must try hard to live in peace with all people and to live as God wants, because if you don't, you will never see the Lord. ₁₅Beware that no one throws away the grace of God. Someone who does that is like a poisonous plant that grows and becomes big. He makes trouble and he makes people dirty and full of sin. ₁₆Also beware that no one lives like Esau. He lived immorally, like someone who does not want to know God. Yes, Esau sold his right_of_the_firstborn_son for one meal. ₁₇You know that later, Esau wanted his father to bless him too, but Isaac could not bless him. Esau cried and begged his father to bless him, but it was too late. He could not make right what he had done wrong.

₁₈You have not come to a place that you can see or touch with your hands, like the Israelites did. They came to a fire that was burning, to a dark cloud and to a strong storm wind. ₁₉You also have not come to a place where the trumpet was blowing and where God talked from heaven. The people who heard that begged God to stop talking and to say nothing more, ₂₀because they could not do what God told them. He said: ‘If an animal touches the mountain, you must kill it with stones.’ ₂₁The things that the Israelites saw made them so afraid that Moses said: ‘I tremble because I am afraid.’

₂₂No, you have come to Mount_Zion, and you have come to the city of God who lives, to the Jerusalem which is in heaven. You have come to angels, so many angels that no one can count them, and you have come to the feast where everyone rejoices. ₂₃You have come to the place where all God's oldest sons have come together, all those whose names are written down in heaven. You have come to the Judge who is the God of all people. You have come to the people who have lived before and who became completely like God wanted them to be. ₂₄You have also come to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and you have come to the blood of Jesus that flowed and brings us a message that is better than the blood of Abel.

₂₅Beware, and do not disobey Him who talks to you. Long ago when God warned those people on earth, they did not want to listen to Him and they could not flee from Him. Yes, it is true, God is warning us from heaven and you know that if we do not want to listen to God, we will not be able to flee from Him. It will be worse for us than for those people who also could not flee from Him. ₂₆At that time God spoke loudly and his voice shook the earth, but now He has promised: ‘I will shake the earth one more time and I will also shake the heaven.’

₂₇God said He would do it ‘one more time’. This tells us that God will take away the things that He has made and that He shook, so that only those things that no one can shake will continue to be here forever. ₂₈It is sure that God wants us to come to Him, there where He is King, and that is why we must thank God. We are thankful and we must serve God as He wants us to. We must honour and respect Him, ₂₉because our God is also like a fire that burns everything.