Hebrews 12:3-23

3For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

4You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

5And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

6For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

7If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

8But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

9Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

10For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

11Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

14Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

15looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

16lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

17For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

18For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,

19and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

20(For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.”

21And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

23to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,