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,

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

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.

¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that ^(A)I may rejoice in the day of Christ that ^(B)I have not run in vain or labored in ^(C)vain.

The Importance of Watching^(A)

³⁴ “But ^(B)take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with ^[a]carousing, drunkenness, and ^(C)cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

¹⁰ that I may know Him and the ^(A)power of His resurrection, and ^(B)the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may ^(C)attain^[a] to the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing Toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already ^(D)attained,^[b] or am already ^(E)perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have ^[c]apprehended; but one thing I do, ^(F)forgetting those things which are behind and ^(G)reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ^14 (H)I press toward the goal for the prize of ^(I)the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

³⁵ Therefore do not cast away your confidence, ^(A)which has great reward. ^36 (B)For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, ^(C)you may receive the promise:

³⁹ But we are not of those ^(G)who draw back to ^[d]perdition, but of those who ^(H)believe to the saving of the soul.

^5 (A)Therefore put to death ^(B)your members which are on the earth: ^(C)fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, ^(D)which is idolatry. ^6 (E)Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon ^(F)the sons of disobedience, ^7 (G)in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

^8 (H)But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Love Fulfills the Law

⁷ You ^(A)ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?