A Call to Endurance
(2 Timothy 2:1–13)

1Therefore let us indeed, having around us so great a cloud of witnesses, having laid aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, run with patience the race which is set before us, 2looking unto Jesus the beginner and perfecter of our faith; who for the joy that was placed before him, endured the cross, looking with contempt at the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

3For consider him who has endured so great a contradiction of sinners against himself, in order that you may not become weary, fainting in your souls.

God Disciplines His Sons

4For you have not yet resisted unto blood, fighting against sin;

5and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, My son regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art proven of him:

6for whom the Lord loves he chastises, and scourges every son whom he receives.

7Endure unto chastisement; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom the father does not chastise? 8And if you are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. 9Then indeed, we had fathers of our flesh who chastised us, and we endured: how much more then shall we submit to the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they indeed for a few days were accustomed to chastise us according to that which seemed right to them; but he made unto our profit, in order that we might partake his holiness. 11Indeed no chastisement for the present seems to be truly joyful, but sorrowful: but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who have been disciplined by it.

12Therefore hold up the hands which hang down, and the paralyzed knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, in order that whatsoever is lame may not be turned out of the way, but rather may it be healed.

A Call to Holiness
(1 Peter 1:13–21)

14Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord: 15looking diligently lest any one may fail from the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up may trouble you, and through it many may be defiled; 16lest any one may be a fornicator, or a profane person, as was Esau, who for one morsel sold his birthright. 17For you know that, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance even though having sought it diligently with tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom

18For you have not come to the mountain that can be touched, and that is burnt with fire, and unto blackness and darkness, and tempest, 19and to the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words; which those having heard requested that the word should not be spoken unto them: 20for they could not endure that which was spoken, If a wild beast should touch the mountain, it shall be pierced through with a dart: 21and the sight was so fearful, Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble: 22but you have come to mount Zion, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the living God, and to myriads of angels, 23to the whole company, and to the church of the first-born, who have been written in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of justified people who have been made perfect, 24and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking something better than the blood of Abel.

25See that you do not reject the one speaking: for if they escape not having rejected the one delivering them the divine oracles on earth, how much more shall we not escape, who turn away from the one speaking from the heavens: 26whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying, I will still once shake not only the earth, but also heaven. 27But he would yet once show the removal of the things shaken, as having been created, in order that the things unshaken may remain. 28Therefore receiving an unshaken kingdom, let us have grace, through which we may worship God acceptably with reverence and fear: 29for our God is a consuming fire.