Hebrews 12–13 · James 1

1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.

5You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;

6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?

8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.

9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

10For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,

13and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

14Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,

15looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it,

16lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.

17For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.

18For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,

19the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,

20for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”.

21So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,

23to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.

25See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

26whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”

27This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.

28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

29for our God is a consuming fire.

1Let brotherly love continue.

2Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.

3Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.

4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

5Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”

6So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

7Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.

8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

9Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

10We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.

11For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.

12Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.

13Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.

14For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.

15Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.

16But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

17Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

18Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

19I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner.

20Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

21make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

22But I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.

23Know that our brother Timothy has been freed, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.

24Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. The Italians greet you.

25Grace be with you all. Amen.

1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.

2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,

3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.

7For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord.

8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;

10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.

11For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass; and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.

12Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him.

13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.

14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.

15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.

16Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.

17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow.

18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

20for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.

21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;

24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.