³² “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven,^{(A) 33} but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

Not Peace, but a Sword

³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.^(B)

³⁷ “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me,^{(E) 38} and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.^{(F) 39} Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.^(G)

The Commissioning of the Disciples

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.^{(A) 17} When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.^{(B) 19} Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit^{(C) 20} and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”^[a]

³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,^{(A) 34} quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.^{(B) 35} Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.^{(C) 36} Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.^{(D) 37} They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two;^[a] they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented^(E)— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground.^(F)

³⁹ Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.^(G)

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,^[b] and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,^{(H) 2} looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of^[c] 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.^(I)