For to what angel did God ever say, 'Thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father'? Or again, 'I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me'?

We must therefore pay closer attention to what we have heard, in case we drift away.

For sanctifier and sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

Well then, as the promise of entrance into his Rest is still left to us, let us be afraid of anyone being judged to have missed it.

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

And no created thing is hidden from him; all things lie open and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

As we have a great high priest, then, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession;

Similarly Christ was not raised to the glory of the high priesthood by himself but by Him who declared to him, Thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father.

On this point I have a great deal to say, which it is hard to make intelligible to you. For you have grown dull of hearing.

Whereas solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by exercise to distinguish good and evil.)

For in the case of people who have been once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly Gift, who participated in the holy Spirit,

God is not unfair; he will not forget what you have done, or the love you have shown for his sake in ministering, as you still do, to the saints.

so that by these two solid facts (the Promise and the Oath), where it is impossible for God to be false, we refugees might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us,

The point of all this is, we do have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens,

Now, as every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, he too must have something to offer.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

He mediates a new covenant for this reason, that those who have been called may obtain the eternal inheritance they have been promised, now that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions involved in the first covenant.

For Christ has not entered a holy place which human hands have made (a mere type of the reality!); he has entered heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, like the high priest entering the holy place every year with blood that was not his own: ??26 for in that case he would have had to suffer repeatedly, ever since the world was founded. Nay, once for all, at the end of the world, he has appeared with his self-sacrifice to abolish sin.

Otherwise, they would surely have ceased to be offered; for the worshippers, once cleansed, would no longer be conscious of sins!

Besides, we have the testimony of the holy Spirit; for after saying,

Brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy Presence in virtue of the blood of Jesus,

and since we have a great Priest over the house of God,

Steady patience is what you need, so that after doing the will of God you may get what you have been promised.

We are not the men to shrink back and be lost, but to have faith and so to win our souls.

If they thought of the land they have left behind, they would have time to go back,

God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.

You have not had to shed blood yet in the struggle against sin.

And have you forgotten the word of appeal that reasons with you as sons? ??My son, never make light of the Lord's discipline, never faint under his reproofs;

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for where is the son who is not disciplined by his father?

You have not come to what you can touch, to flames of fire, to mist and gloom and stormy blasts,

You have come to mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels in festal gathering,

Never forget to be hospitable, for by hospitality some have entertained angels unawares.

Keep your life free from the love of money; be content with what you have, for He has said, Never will I fail you, never will I forsake you.

Never let yourselves be carried away with a variety of novel doctrines; for the right thing is to have one's heart strengthened by grace, not by the eating of food ??that has never been any use to those who have had recourse to it.

Our altar is one of which the worshippers have no right to eat.

(for we have no lasting city here below, we seek the City to come).

Obey your leaders, submit to them; for they are alive to the interests of your souls, as men who will have to account for their trust. Let their work be a joy to them and not a grief ??which would be a loss to yourselves.

Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clean conscience; my desire is in every way to lead an honest life.