Young's Literal Translation YLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Therefore, we also having so great a cloud of witnesses set around us, every weight having put off, and the closely besetting sin, through endurance may we run the contest that is set before us,
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Do you see what this means - all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running - and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.
2 looking to the author and perfecter of faith -- Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him -- did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down;
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Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed - that exhilarating finish in and with God - he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
3 for consider again him who endured such gainsaying from the sinners to himself, that ye may not be wearied in your souls -- being faint.
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When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
4 Not yet unto blood did ye resist -- with the sin striving;
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In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through - all that bloodshed!
5 and ye have forgotten the exhortation that doth speak fully with you as with sons, `My son, be not despising chastening of the Lord, nor be faint, being reproved by Him,
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So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either.
6 for whom the Lord doth love He doth chasten, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;'
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It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.
7 if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten?
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God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training,
8 and if ye are apart from chastening, of which all have become partakers, then bastards are ye, and not sons.
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the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God?
9 Then, indeed, fathers of our flesh we have had, chastising [us], and we were reverencing [them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of the spirits, and live?
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We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live?
10 for they, indeed, for a few days, according to what seemed good to them, were chastening, but He for profit, to be partakers of His separation;
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While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best.
11 and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it -- it doth yield.
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At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
12 Wherefore, the hanging-down hands and the loosened knees set ye up;
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So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet!
13 and straight paths make for your feet, that that which is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be healed;
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Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!
14 peace pursue with all, and the separation, apart from which no one shall see the Lord,
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Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you'll never get so much as a glimpse of God.
15 looking diligently over lest any one be failing of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up may give trouble, and through this many may be defiled;
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Make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.
16 lest any one be a fornicator, or a profane person, as Esau, who in exchange for one morsel of food did sell his birthright,
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Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite.
17 for ye know that also afterwards, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was disapproved of, for a place of reformation he found not, though with tears having sought it.
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You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God's blessing - but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.
18 For ye came not near to the mount touched and scorched with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
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Unlike your ancestors, you didn't come to Mount Sinai - all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble -
19 and a sound of a trumpet, and a voice of sayings, which those having heard did entreat that a word might not be added to them,
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to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop.
20 for they were not bearing that which is commanded, `And if a beast may touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or with an arrow shot through,'
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When they heard the words - "If an animal touches the Mountain, it's as good as dead" - they were afraid to move.
21 and, (so terrible was the sight,) Moses said, `I am fearful exceedingly, and trembling.'
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Even Moses was terrified.
22 But, ye came to Mount Zion, and to a city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of messengers,
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No, that's not your experience at all. You've come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels
23 to the company and assembly of the first-born in heaven enrolled, and to God the judge of all, and to spirits of righteous men made perfect,
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and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just.
24 and to a mediator of a new covenant -- Jesus, and to blood of sprinkling, speaking better things than that of Abel!
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You've come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel's - a homicide that cried out for vengeance - became a proclamation of grace.
25 See, may ye not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape who refused him who upon earth was divinely speaking -- much less we who do turn away from him who [speaketh] from heaven,
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So don't turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn't get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings?
26 whose voice the earth shook then, and now hath he promised, saying, `Yet once -- I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven;'
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His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time - he's told us this quite plainly - he'll also rock the heavens: "One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern."
27 and this -- `Yet once' -- doth make evident the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been made, that the things not shaken may remain;
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The phrase "one last shaking" means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.
28 wherefore, a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving, may we have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and religious fear;
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Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander.
29 for also our God [is] a consuming fire.
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He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!