^7 (A)I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

¹² Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Striving for a Crown

²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? ^(A)Run in such a way that you may ^[a]obtain it. ²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize ^[b]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for ^(B)an imperishable crown. ²⁶ Therefore I run thus: ^(C)not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. ^27 (D)But I discipline my body and ^(E)bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become ^(F)disqualified.

The Race of Faith

12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, ^(A)let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and ^(B)let us run ^(C)with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the ^[a]author and ^[b]finisher of our faith, ^(D)who for the joy that was set before Him ^(E)endured the cross, despising the shame, and ^(F)has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

^24 [a]But ^(A)none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, ^(B)so that I may finish my ^[b]race with joy, ^(C)and the ministry ^(D)which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have ^[a]apprehended; but one thing I do, ^(A)forgetting those things which are behind and ^(B)reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ^14 (C)I press toward the goal for the prize of ^(D)the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(A)“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to ^(B)finish His work.

^8 (A)“I know your works. See, I have set before you ^(B)an open door, ^[a]and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

²⁸ But He said, ^(A)“More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”