The Example of Jesus

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,^[a] and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,^{(A) 2} looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of^[b] the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.^(B)

³ Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners,^[c] so that you may not grow weary in your souls or lose heart.^{(C) 4} In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—

⁷ Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children, for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?^{(F) 8} If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children.^{(G) 9} Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.^{(H) 11} Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.^(I)

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees^{(J) 13} and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.^(K)

The Greatest Commandment

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵ and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him.^{(A) 36} “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ³⁷ He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{(B) 38} This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’^{(C) 40} On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”^(D)