The New Testament with Commentary Hebrews 12

“Let us run with endurance”

1 So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we too must run with endurance the race that is set before us, laying aside every impediment and the sin* that so easily ensnares, 2 looking unto Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of the Faith, who for the joy† that was set before Him endured a cross, scorning its ignominy, and took His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

All legitimate children receive discipline

3 Do consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so as not to grow weary, losing courage in your souls. 4 In your struggle against sin‡ you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed.§ 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that instructs you as sons:

“My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,

nor lose heart when you are reproved by Him;

6 because whom the Lord loves He chastens,

yes scourges every son whom He accepts.”*

7 If you are enduring discipline, God is dealing with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline (something everyone undergoes),† then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had our human fathers as correctors and respected them. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits‡ and live? 10 Now they indeed disciplined us during a short period as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, so that we may partake of His holiness. 11 Now no discipline seems to be pleasant at the time, but painful; yet afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.§

Watch your step!

12 Therefore strengthen the listless hands and weakened knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame not be turned aside but rather be healed.*

14 Pursue peace with all, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord;† 15 taking care that no one come short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and thereby many be defiled, 16 that no one be a fornicator, or worldly like Esau, who in exchange for one meal gave up his birthright. 17 Because you do indeed know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected; he found no place for a change of mind,‡ though he sought it diligently with tears.

Sinai X Zion

18 Now you have not come to a touchable mountain burning with fire, to blackness and darkness, to tempest; 19 to a trumpet blast and spoken words such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them 20 (because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned!”§ 21 and the sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling!”); 22 but you have come to Mount Zion, even to the City of the Living God, Heavenly Jerusalem; to myriads of angels in festal gathering, 23 to an assembly of firstborn ones* who have been enrolled in heaven; to God, Judge of all; to the spirits of the perfected righteous; 24 to Jesus, Mediator of a new covenant, and to a blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.†

Warning: “Our God is a consuming fire”

25 See to it that you not refuse Him who speaks. Because if they did not escape who refused Him who gave divine warning on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns from Heaven! 26 Then His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”‡ 27 Now the ‘yet once more’ clearly indicates the removal of the things being shaken (created things), so that the unshakables may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us hold on to the grace by which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear; 29 because our God is indeed a consuming fire.§

*12:1 I suppose that each of us has his own ‘besetting sin’—what gives me trouble will not necessarily be the same thing that gives you trouble.

†12:2 I imagine that that “joy” has something to do with His Bride.

‡12:4 In the context this presumably refers to sin in the world, not within.

§12:4 The Text does not say whose blood.

*12:6 See Proverbs 3:11-12. When I was a boy my father had a horse, a gentle creature, and a proper horsewhip to go with it. I found myself on the business end of that whip more than once (more often than did the horse), and I can assure the reader that it was not a pleasant experience. So God's scourgings tend not to be very pleasant; but if we end up partaking of His holiness (verse 10 below), it will be worth it.

†12:8 At that time there was probably no culture dominated by relativistic humanism.

‡12:9 “The Father of spirits”—an interesting concept. All created spirits owe their existence to Him.

§12:11 That is the secret—we must be “exercised” by it; that is, we must learn whatever lesson the Lord is trying to teach us.

*12:13 I take the point to be that we should not turn our Christian walk into a bunch of complicated rules—keep it simple.

†12:14 If we need to “pursue” this holiness, then it is experiential, not positional. God rewards those who “earnestly seek Him” (11:6 above).

‡12:17 Neither Isaac nor God changed his mind; Jacob was in and Esau was out.

§12:20 Perhaps 4% of the Greek manuscripts add ‘or shot with an arrow’ (as in AV and NKJV).

*12:23 I wonder who these “firstborn ones” are.

†12:24 Let me try to list the ‘reception committee’: 1) the City; 2) angels; 3) firstborn ones (different from angels?); 4) God the Father; 5) the perfected righteous; 6) Jesus; 7) the Blood. An impressive list! What did Abel's blood say?—murder and punishment! What does Jesus' blood say?—redemption and forgiveness! Oh praise God!

‡12:26 See Haggai 2:6.

§12:29 One gets the impression that taking God, and our life in Christ, for granted is definitely not a good idea.