Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

We are Jesus’ house

3 Therefore, brothers and sisters who are partners in the heavenly calling, think about Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. ² Jesus was faithful to the one who appointed him just like Moses was faithful in God’s house. ³ But he deserves greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of the house deserves more honor than the house itself. ⁴ Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. ⁵ Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant in order to affirm the things that would be spoken later. ⁶ But Jesus was faithful over God’s house as a Son. We are his house if we hold on to the confidence and the pride that our hope gives us.

Respond to Jesus’ voice now

⁷ So, as the Holy Spirit says,

¹² Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. ¹³ Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it’s called “today,” so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin’s deception. ¹⁴ We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end.

¹⁵ When it says,

¹⁶ Who was it who rebelled when they heard his voice? Wasn’t it all of those who were brought out of Egypt by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with the ones who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? ¹⁸ And against whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest, if not against the ones who were disobedient? ¹⁹ We see that they couldn’t enter because of their lack of faith.

Enter the rest

4 Therefore, since the promise that we can enter into rest is still open, let’s be careful so that none of you will appear to miss it. ² We also had the good news preached to us, just as the Israelites did. However, the message they heard didn’t help them because they weren’t united in faith with the ones who listened to it. ³ We who have faith are entering the rest. As God said,

And yet God’s works were completed at the foundation of the world. ⁴ Then somewhere he said this about the seventh day of creation: God rested on the seventh day from all his works.^{[d] 5} But again, in the passage above, God said, They will never enter my rest!^{[e] 6} Therefore, it’s left open for some to enter it, and the ones who had the good news preached to them before didn’t enter because of disobedience. ⁷ Just as it says in the passage above, God designates a certain day as “today,” when he says through David much later,

⁸ If Joshua gave the Israelites rest, God wouldn’t have spoken about another day later on. ⁹ So you see that a sabbath rest is left open for God’s people. ¹⁰ The one who entered God’s rest also rested from his works, just as God rested from his own.

First summary of the message

¹¹ Therefore, let’s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience, ¹² because God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. ¹³ No creature is hidden from it, but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer.

¹⁴ Also, let’s hold on to the confession since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, who is Jesus, God’s Son; ¹⁵ because we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin.

¹⁶ Finally, let’s draw near to the throne of favor with confidence so that we can receive mercy and find grace when we need help.

Introduction to a deeper teaching

5 Every high priest is taken from the people and put in charge of things that relate to God for their sake, in order to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² The high priest is able to deal gently with the ignorant and those who are misled since he himself is prone to weakness. ³ Because of his weakness, he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the people. ⁴ No one takes this honor for themselves but takes it only when they are called by God, just like Aaron.

⁵ In the same way Christ also didn’t promote himself to become high priest. Instead, it was the one who said to him,

⁶ as he also says in another place,

⁷ During his days on earth, Christ offered prayers and requests with loud cries and tears as his sacrifices to the one who was able to save him from death. He was heard because of his godly devotion. ⁸ Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. ⁹ After he had been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him. ¹⁰ He was appointed by God to be a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹ We have a lot to say about this topic, and it’s difficult to explain, because you have been lazy and you haven’t been listening. ¹² Although you should have been teachers by now, you need someone to teach you an introduction to the basics about God’s message. You have come to the place where you need milk instead of solid food. ¹³ Everyone who lives on milk is not used to the word of righteousness, because they are babies. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, whose senses are trained by practice to distinguish between good and evil.