² For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.^[a]

¹³ Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.

¹⁶ But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?”^{[a] 17} So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.

⁶ And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

¹⁸ And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? ¹⁹ So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.

¹² Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.^[a] Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.

⁸ “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

²⁵ The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile.

⁴⁶ Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles.

⁶ So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.