Hebrews 12:1

The Race of Faith

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, ^alet us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and ^blet us run ^cwith endurance the race that is set before us,

2 looking unto Jesus, the¹ author and finisher of our faith, ^awho for the joy that was set before Him ^bendured the cross, despising the shame, and ^chas sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Discipline of God

3 ^aFor consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, ^blest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

4 ^aYou have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
^a“My son, do not despise the¹ chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

6 For ^awhom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

7 ^aIf¹ you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what ^bson is there whom a father does not chasten?

8 But if you are without chastening, ^aof which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to ^athe Father of spirits and live?

10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, ^athat we may be partakers of His holiness.

11 Now no¹ chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields ^athe peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Renew Your Spiritual Vitality

12 Therefore ^astrengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

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

14 ^aPursue peace with all people, and holiness, ^bwithout which no one will see the Lord:

15 looking carefully lest anyone ^afall short of the grace of God; lest any ^broot of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

16 lest there be any ^afornicator or profane person like Esau, ^bwho for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was ^arejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

The Glorious Company

18 For you have not come¹ to ^athe mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and² darkness and tempest,

19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it ^abegged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: ^a“And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned¹ or shot with an arrow.”

21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ^a“I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

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

23 to the¹ general assembly and church of ^athe firstborn ^bwho are registered in heaven, to God ^cthe Judge of all, to the spirits of just men ^dmade perfect,

24 to Jesus ^athe Mediator of the new covenant, and to ^bthe blood of sprinkling that speaks better things ^cthan that of Abel.

Hear the Heavenly Voice

25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For ^aif they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,

26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ^a“Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”

27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the ^aremoval of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we¹ may ^aserve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

29 For ^aour God is a consuming fire.

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
What is the Forerunner Commentary?

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What Does Hebrews 12:1 Mean?

Patience is vital because God, like an artist shaping marble, uses life's trials to mold godly character in us. Trials should be counted as joy, since they produce the patience needed for God to complete His work. The great cloud of witnesses are not observing us; rather, they are those who lived long ago and left a testimony of faith, endurance, and perseverance, glorifying God. Though dead, their recorded lives yet speak, as Abel's blood still speaks. They witness that God is faithful, that He calls us to save us, and that if they made it, so can we. Laying aside every weight requires careful evaluation of each aspect of life, throwing off whatever hinders the spiritual race we run against our own nature.

Hebrews 12:1-4

We can learn a great deal about why patience is so vital by comparing the process we are going through to an artist sculpting a work from a piece of marble. Chip by chip over a period of time, an artist uses hammer and chisel to shape a conception from a raw slab of rock until the finished figure is revealed. God is doing much the same with us except we are living, raw material with mind, emotions, and the liberty to allow or disallow the Artist to continue. If we are impatient, not allowing the Creator to complete His artistry by our constant yielding to His tools, we will never be perfect and entire.

It is easy for us to magnify our burdens. Notice, however, what grumbling did for the Israelites in the wilderness when God finally responded. Would we rather have our trial or grumble and receive what the Israelites did? We must begin to cultivate the habit of thinking of life, including all of its trials, as being God's way to shape godly character in us.

James makes what seems to be a paradoxical statement in James 1:2: We should count our various trials as joy. Why? Because verse 3 says that doing so produces patience! We need patience so God can mold us into His likeness. Even God cannot produce godly character by fiat. James is teaching us that we should not measure the experiences of life by their ability to please our ambition or tastes but by their capacity to make us into God's image. If we have any vision - and a zealous desire to live as God does - we can welcome our trials as steps in God's creative process and meet them with patience and hope.

Perfection in this life is to become what God wants us to become. What could be better than that? If we understand that our lives are in God's hands as He molds and shapes us, then the meanings - the eventual outcome - of joy and sorrow are the same. God intends the same result whether He gives or takes. The events of life are merely the scaffolding for shaping us into His image, and we should meet them with patience as He continues His work. This will work to flatten out the emotional extremes we tend to experience.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience

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