The Rest That God Promised

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ² For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{[a] 3} For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God^[b] has said,

though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. ⁴ For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵ And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” ⁶ Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God^[c] would not speak later about another day. ⁹ So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; ¹⁰ for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

¹² Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

² Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” ⁵ But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^{[a] 8} and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰ Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”