Hebrews 12:1-13 ▼

1 Having therefore so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every incumbrance, and the sin that easily besets us, and run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 looking unto Jesus the leader and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 Wherefore consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, that ye may not give out, fainting in your minds:

4 for ye have not resisted unto blood in striving against sin.

5 Have ye forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh to you as to sons, saying, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor saint when rebuked by Him?

6 for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."

7 If ye endure chastening, God treateth you as sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not chastise?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.

9 Now if we had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they indeed corrected us for a while, as seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now no chastening seems for the present to be matter of joy but of grief: and yet afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those that are exercised thereby.

12 Lift up therefore the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.

13 And make strait paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be turned out of the way, but rather be healed.