A Call to Endurance
(2 Timothy 2:1–13)

1Therefore we also, having such a great cloud of witnesses encompassing us, having put off every weight and the sin easily entangling, should run through perseverance the race lying before us, 2looking to Jesus, the author† and perfecter of our faith, who in view of the joy lying before Him endured the cross, having despised its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider fully the One having endured such great contradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you⁺ might not grow weary, fainting in your⁺ souls.

God Disciplines His Sons

4Not yet did you⁺ resist unto blood, struggling against sin, 5and you⁺ have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you⁺ as to sons:

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor faint being reproved by Him.

6For the Lord disciplines whom He loves,

and He scourges every son whom He receives.Ӡ

7It is for discipline that you⁺ endure;† God is treating you⁺ as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you⁺ are without discipline, of which they have all become partakers, then you⁺ are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore indeed, we have had fathers of our flesh, discipliners, and we respected them; and will we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and will live?

10For indeed, for a few days according to that seeming good to them, they were disciplining us—but He for our benefitting, in order to share His holiness. 11And all discipline indeed for the present does not seem to be of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness† to those having been trained by it.

12Therefore set straight again the drooping hands and the enfeebled† knees,† 13and make straight paths for your⁺ feet,† so that the lame should not be turned aside, but rather should be healed.

A Call to Holiness
(1 Peter 1:13–21)

14Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, 15overseeing, lest any be falling short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness† springing up should trouble you, and by this the many might be defiled, 16lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright. 17For you⁺ know that even afterward, wanting to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, although having sought it out with tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom
(Exodus 20:18–21; Deuteronomy 5:22–33)

18For you⁺ have not come to† that being touched and having been kindled with fire, and to darkness and to gloom and to storm, 19and to the sound of a trumpet, and to a voice of sayings which those having heard begged that the word not be addressed to them, 20for they could not bear that being commanded: “If even a beast should touch the mountain, it will be stoned.”† 21And the thing appearing was so fearful that Moses said, “I am greatly afraid and trembling.”†

22But you⁺ have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23and to the assembly, to the church of the firstborn having been enrolled in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous having been perfected, 24and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking a better thing† than that of Abel.

25Watch out, lest you⁺ refuse the One speaking. For if they did not escape, having refused the One divinely warning them on earth, much less we, turning away from the One from the heavens, 26whose voice shook the earth at that time; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”† 27And this, “Yet once more,” makes evident the removing of the things being shaken, as having been made, so that the things not being shaken should remain.

28Therefore, receiving an unshakable kingdom, we may have grace, by which we may serve God well pleasingly, with reverence† and awe. 29“For also, our God is a consuming fire.”†

Footnotes:

2 Or pioneer or founder
6 Or and He chastises every son He receives; Proverbs 3:11–12 (see also LXX)
7 GOC, ALT, F35, and TR If you are enduring discipline
11 Or it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace
12 Or paralyzed; Greek paralelymena
12 Isaiah 35:3
13 Proverbs 4:26 (see also LXX)
15 See Deuteronomy 29:18
18 BYZ and TR to a mountain
20 Exodus 19:12–13
21 Deuteronomy 9:19
24 TR better things
26 Haggai 2:6
28 BYZ and TR with reverence and godly fear
29 Deuteronomy 4:24