The Call to Endurance
(2 Timothy 2:1-13)

1Therefore we also, having such a great cloud of witnesses encompassing us, having laid aside every weight and the sin easily entangling, should run with endurance the race lying before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who in view of the joy lying before Him endured the cross, having despised its shame, and sat down at right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider fully the One having endured such great hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you shall not grow weary, fainting in your souls.

God Disciplines His Sons

4Not yet have you resisted unto blood, struggling against sin, 5and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as to sons:

“My son, do not regard lightly the Lord’s discipline,

nor faint being reproved by Him.

6For the Lord disciplines whom He loves,

and He scourges every son whom He receives.a

7If you endure discipline, God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you are without discipline, of which they have all become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore indeed, we have had fathers of our flesh, correctors, and we respected them; and shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and shall live?

10For truly they were disciplining us for a few days, according to that seeming good to them; but He for our benefitting, in order to share His holiness. 11And all discipline indeed for those being present, does not seem to be of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those having been trained by it.

12Therefore lift up the drooping hands and enfeebled knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame should not be put out of joint, but rather should be healed.

A Call to Holiness
(1 Peter 1:13-21)

14Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, 15observing lest any be failing of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble you and by this, the many might be defiled, 16lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright. 17For you know that even afterward, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, although having earnestly sought it with tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom
(Exodus 20:18-21; Deuteronomy 5:22-33)

18For you have not come to that being touched and having been kindled with fire, and to darkness, and to gloom, and to storm, 19and to the sound of a trumpet, and to a voice of words which those having heard excused themselves, asking the word not to be addressed to them, 20for they could not bear that being commanded: “If even a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned.”b 21And the thing appearing was so fearful that Moses said, “I am greatly afraid and trembling.”c

22But you have come to Mount Zion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23and to the assembly, to the church of the firstborn having been enrolled in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous having been perfected, 24and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkling of blood, speaking better things than that of Abel.

25Take heed lest you refuse the One speaking. For if they did not escape, having refused the One divinely instructing them on earth, much less we, turning away from the One from the heavens, 26whose voice shook the earth at that time; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”d 27And this, “Yet once more,” signifies the removing of the things being shaken, as having been created, so that the things not being shaken should remain.

28Therefore, receiving a kingdom not to be shaken, we may have grace, by which we may serve God well pleasingly, with fear and reverence. 29For also, our God is a consuming fire.e