New Testament Commentary - Hebrews Chapter 12

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
              CHAPTER 12

Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth—God is the Father of spirit—To see God, follow peace and holiness—Exalted saints belong to the Church of the Firstborn.

  1 WHEREFORE seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the asin which doth so easily bbeset us, and let us run with cpatience the race that is set before us,
  2 Looking unto Jesus the aauthor and bfinisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him cendured the cross, despising the dshame, and is set down at the right hand of the ethrone of God.
  3 For consider him that endured such acontradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
  4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, astriving against sina.
  5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
  6 For whom the Lord loveth he achasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
 6a Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin What is it which Christ underwent in the performance of the atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane that night? The pain of suffering which causes a man to bleed from every pore. Christ has stated that this suffering caused him, even God, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, that it was to suffer borth body and spirit (D&C 19:18). That is the whole being, the very soul doeth suffer in such circumstance.
  7 If ye aendure bchastening, God dealeth with you as with csons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
  8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
  9 Furthermore we have had afathers of our flesh which bcorrected us, and we gave them creverence: shall we not much rather be in dsubjection unto the eFather of fspirits, and live?
  10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his aholiness.
  11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the apeaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are bexercised thereby.
  12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the afeeble knees;
  13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be ahealed.
  14 Follow apeace with all men, and bholiness, without which no man shall csee the Lord:
  15 Looking diligently lest any man afail of the bgrace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
  16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his abirthright.
  17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with atears.
  18 For ye are not come unto the amount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
  19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which avoice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
  20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
  21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
  22 But ye are come unto mount aSion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of bangels,
  23 To the general assembly and church of the afirstborn, which are bwritten in heaven, and to God the cJudge of all, and to the dspirits of ejust men made perfect,
  24 And to Jesus the amediator of the bnew ccovenant, and to the dblood of sprinkling, that speaketh ebetter things than that of Abel.
  25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they aescaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
  26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I ashake not the earth only, but also heaven.
  27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
  28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with areverence and godly bfear:
  29 For our God is a consuming fire.
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