New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.
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Every high priest selected to represent men and women before God and offer sacrifices for their sins
2 And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses.
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should be able to deal gently with their failings, since he knows what it's like from his own experience.
3 That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.
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But that also means that he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the people's.
4 And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was.
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No one elects himself to this honored position. He's called to it by God, as Aaron was.
5 That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father. ”
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Neither did Christ presume to set himself up as high priest, but was set apart by the One who said to him, "You're my Son; today I celebrate you!"
6 And in another passage God said to him, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
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In another place God declares, "You're a priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek."
7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.
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While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him.
8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
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Though he was God's Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do.
9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.
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Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek,
10 And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
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he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him.
11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.
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I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening.
12 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.
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By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one - baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago!
13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.
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Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways;
14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
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solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.