A Call to Endurance
(2 Timothy 2:1–13)

1Therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us?having thrown off every encumbrance and the easily besetting sin?let us run with patience the race lying before us; 2looking away to the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus; Who, in consideration of the joy lying before Him, endured the cross, despising shame, and hath taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

3For consider Him Who hath endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye become weary, fainting in your souls.

God Disciplines His Sons

4Not yet did ye resist unto blood, contending against sin;

5and ye have forgotten the exhortation which, indeed, reasons with you as with sons: "My son, do not lightly regard the chastening of the Lord; neither faint, when reproved by Him;

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

7For chastening endure ye: God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chastens not? 8But, if ye are without chastisement, of which all have become partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9Furthermore, we used to have the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced them: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live? 10For they, indeed, for a few days were chastening us, according to what seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may partake of His holiness. 11All chastening, indeed, for the present seems not to be joyous, but grievous; but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained thereby.

12Wherefore, lift up the relaxed hands and the feeble knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, that the lame be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed.

A Call to Holiness
(1 Peter 1:13–21)

14Pursue peace with all, and the holiness without which no one shall see the Lord; 15looking carefully, lest there be any one falling short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness, springing up, trouble you, and through it many be defiled; 16lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who, for one meal, yielded up his own birth-right. 17For ye know that even after that, when wishing to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, although he earnestly sought it with tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom

18For ye have not come to a mount that is touched and burning with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice those who heard entreated that no word more should be added to them; 20for they could not bear that which was being commanded: "And, if a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned"; 21and so terrible was the appearance, Moses said, "I am exceedingly frightened and in fear!" 22But ye have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23to the general festal throng, and assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous ones made perfect; 24and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking better things than Abel.

25See that ye refuse not Him Who speaketh; for, if those escaped not, when refusing him who warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape, who turn away from Him Who warneth us from Heaven; 26Whose voice then shook the earth, but now hath He promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake, not only the earth, but also the heaven." 27But the expression, "Yet once more," signifies the removal of the things shaken, as of things that have been made, that the things that are not shaken may remain. 28Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear; 29for, verily, our God is a consuming fire.