Hebrews 11-13

Hebrews 11

¹Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the sign that the things not seen are true.

²For by it our fathers had God's approval.

³By faith it is clear to us that the order of events was fixed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made from things which only seem to be.

⁴By faith Abel made a better offering to God than Cain, and he had witness through it of his righteousness, God giving his approval of his offering: and his voice still comes to us through it though he is dead.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken up to heaven so that he did not see death; he was seen no longer, for God took him away: for before he was taken, witness had been given that he was well-pleasing to God:

⁶And without faith it is not possible to be well-pleasing to him, for it is necessary for anyone who comes to God to have the belief that God is, and that he is a rewarder of all those who make a serious search for him.

⁷By faith Noah, being moved by the fear of God, made ready an ark for the salvation of his family, because God had given him news of things which were not seen at the time; and through it the world was judged by him, and he got for his heritage the righteousness which is by faith.

⁸By faith Abraham did as God said when he was ordered to go out into a place which was to be given to him as a heritage, and went out without knowledge of where he was going.

⁹By faith he was a wanderer in the land of the agreement, as in a strange land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who had a part with him in the same heritage:

¹⁰For he was looking for the strong town, whose builder and maker is God.

¹¹And by faith Sarah herself had power to give birth, when she was very old, because she had faith in him who gave his word;

¹²So that from one man, who was near to death, came children in number as the stars in heaven, or as the sand by the seaside, which may not be numbered.

¹³All these came to their end in faith, not having had the heritage; but having seen it with delight far away, they gave witness that they were wanderers and not of the earth.

¹⁴For those who say such things make it clear that they are searching for a country for themselves.

¹⁵And truly if they had kept in mind the country from which they went out, they would have had chances of turning back.

¹⁶But now their desire is for a better country, that is to say, for one in heaven; and so it is no shame to God to be named their God; for he has made ready a town for them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body,

¹⁸Of whom it had been said, From Isaac will your seed take their name:

¹⁹Judging that God was able to give life even to the dead; and because of this he did get him back as if from death.

²⁰By faith Isaac, blessing Jacob and Esau, gave news of things to come.

²¹By faith Jacob gave a blessing to the two sons of Joseph, when he was near to death; and gave God worship, supported by his stick.

²²By faith Joseph, when his end was near, said that the children of Israel would go out of Egypt; and gave orders about his bones.

²³By faith Moses was kept secretly by his father and mother for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a fair child; and they had no fear of the king's orders.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he became a man, had no desire to be named the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

²⁵Feeling that it was better to undergo pain with the people of God, than for a short time to have a taste of the pleasures of sin;

²⁶Judging a part in the shame of Christ to be better than all the wealth of Egypt; for he was looking forward to his reward.

²⁷By faith he went out of Egypt, not being turned from his purpose by fear of the wrath of the king; for he kept on his way, as seeing him who is unseen.

²⁸By faith he kept the Passover, and put the sign of the blood on the houses, so that the angel of destruction might not put their oldest sons to death.

²⁹By faith they went through the Red Sea as if it had been dry land, though the Egyptians were overcome by the water when they made an attempt to do the same.

³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho came down, after they had been circled for seven days.

³¹By faith Rahab, the loose woman, was not put to death with those who had gone against God's orders, because she had taken into her house in peace those sent to see the land.

³²What more am I to say? For there would not be time to give the stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets:

³³Who through faith overcame kingdoms, did righteousness, got their reward, kept the mouths of lions shut,

³⁴Put out the power of fire, got safely away from the edge of the sword, were made strong when they had been feeble, became full of power in war, and put to flight the armies of the nations.

³⁵Women had their dead given back to them living; others let themselves be cruelly attacked, having no desire to go free, so that they might have a better life to come;

³⁶And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons:

³⁷They were stoned, they were cut up with knives, they were tested, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins and in goatskins; being poor and in pain and cruelly attacked,

³⁸Wandering in waste places and in mountains and in holes in the rocks; for whom the world was not good enough.

³⁹And not one of these got the good things of the agreement, though they all had a good record through faith,

⁴⁰Because God had kept some better thing for us, so that it was not possible for them to become complete without us.

Hebrews 12

¹For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us,

²Having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the guide and end of our faith, who went through the pains of the cross, not caring for the shame, because of the joy which was before him, and who has now taken his place at the right hand of God's seat of power.

³Give thought to him who has undergone so much of the hate of sinners against himself, so that you may not be tired and feeble of purpose.

⁴Till now you have not given your blood in your fight against sin:

⁵And you have not kept in mind the word which says to you as to sons, My son, do not make little of the Lord's punishment, and do not give up hope when you are judged by him;

⁶For the Lord sends punishment on his loved ones; everyone whom he takes as his son has experience of his rod.

⁷It is for your training that you undergo these things; God is acting to you as a father does to his sons; for what son does not have punishment from his father?

⁸But if you have not that punishment of which we all have our part, then you are not true sons, but children of shame.

⁹And again, if the fathers of our flesh gave us punishment and had our respect, how much more will we be under the authority of the Father of spirits, and have life?

¹⁰For they truly gave us punishment for a short time, as it seemed good to them; but he does it for our profit, so that we may become holy as he is.

¹¹At the time all punishment seems to be pain and not joy: but after, those who have been trained by it get from it the peace-giving fruit of righteousness.

¹²For this cause let the hands which are hanging down be lifted up, and let the feeble knees be made strong,

¹³And make straight roads for your feet, so that the feeble may not be turned out of the way, but may be made strong.

¹⁴Let your desire be for peace with all men, and to be made holy, without which no man may see the Lord;

¹⁵Looking with care to see that no man among you in his behaviour comes short of the grace of God; for fear that some bitter root may come up to be a trouble to you, and that some of you may be made unclean by it;

¹⁶And that there may not be any evil liver, or any man without respect for God, like Esau, who let his birthright go for a plate of food.

¹⁷For you have knowledge that even long after, when he was desiring the blessing for his heritage, he was turned away, though he made his request frequently and with weeping; because the past might not be changed.

¹⁸You have not come to a mountain which may be touched, and is burning with fire, and to a black cloud, and a dark smoke, and a violent wind,

¹⁹And to the sound of a horn, and the voice of words, the hearers of which made request that not a word more might be said to them:

²⁰For the order which said, If the mountain is touched even by a beast, the beast is to be stoned, seemed hard to them;

²¹And the vision was so overpowering that even Moses said, I am shaking and full of fear.

²²But you have come to the mountain of Zion, to the place of the living God, to the Jerusalem which is in heaven, and to an army of angels which may not be numbered,

²³To the great meeting and church of the first of those who are named in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of good men made complete,

²⁴And to Jesus by whom the new agreement has been made between God and man, and to the sign of the blood which says better things than Abel's blood.

²⁵See that you give ear to his voice which comes to you. For if those whose ears were shut to the voice which came to them on earth did not go free from punishment, what chance have we of going free if we give no attention to him whose voice comes from heaven?

²⁶Whose voice was the cause of the shaking of the earth; but now he has made an oath, saying, There will be still one more shaking, not only of the earth, but of heaven.

²⁷And the words, Still one more, make it clear that there will be a taking away of those things which are shaking, as of things which are made, so that there may be only those things of which no shaking is possible.

²⁸If then, we have a kingdom which will never be moved, let us have grace, so that we may give God such worship as is pleasing to him with fear and respect:

²⁹For our God is an all-burning fire.

Hebrews 13

¹Go on loving your brothers in the faith.

²Take care to keep open house: because in this way some have had angels as their guests, without being conscious of it.

³Keep in mind those who are in chains, as if you were chained with them, and those who are in trouble, as being yourselves in the body.

⁴Let married life be honoured among all of you and not made unclean; for men untrue in married life will be judged by God.

⁵Be free from the love of money and pleased with the things which you have; for he himself has said, I will be with you at all times.

⁶So that we say with a good heart, The Lord is my helper; I will have no fear: what is man able to do to me?

⁷Keep in mind those who were over you, and who gave you the word of God; seeing the outcome of their way of life, let your faith be like theirs.

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.

⁹Do not be turned away by different strange teachings, because it is good for your hearts to be made strong by grace, and not by meats, which were of no profit to those who took so much trouble over them.

¹⁰We have an altar from which those priests who are servants in the Tent may not take food.

¹¹For the bodies of the beasts whose blood is taken into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the circle of the tents.

¹²For this reason Jesus was put to death outside the walls, so that he might make the people holy by his blood.

¹³Let us then go out to him outside the circle of the tents, taking his shame on ourselves.

¹⁴For here we have no fixed resting-place, but our search is for the one which is to come.

¹⁵Let us then make offerings of praise to God at all times through him, that is to say, the fruit of lips giving witness to his name.

¹⁶But go on doing good and giving to others, because God is well-pleased with such offerings.

¹⁷Give ear to those who are rulers over you, and do as they say: for they keep watch over your souls, ready to give an account of them; let them be able to do this with joy and not with grief, because that would be of no profit to you.

¹⁸Make prayers for us, for we are certain that our hearts are free from the sense of sin, desiring the right way of life in all things.

¹⁹I make this request more strongly, in the hope of coming back to you more quickly.

²⁰Now may the God of peace, who made that great keeper of his flock, even our Lord Jesus, come back from the dead through the blood of the eternal agreement,

²¹Make you full of every good work and ready to do all his desires, working in us whatever is pleasing in his eyes through Jesus Christ; and may the glory be given to him for ever and ever. So be it.

²²But, brothers, take kindly the words which I have said for your profit; for I have not sent you a long letter.

²³Our brother Timothy has been let out of prison; and if he comes here in a short time, he and I will come to you together.

²⁴Give words of love from me to those who are rulers over you, and to all the saints. Those who are in Italy send you their love.

²⁵May grace be with you all.