First ReadingHebrews 12:4-7, 11-15
From the Letter to the Hebrews
4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.5You have forgotten the exhortationwhich reasons with you as with children,
“My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord,nor faint when you are reproved by him;6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines,and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7It is for discipline that you endure.God deals with you as with children,for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? verses 8–10 are not read11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous;yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to thosewho have been trained by it.12Therefore lift up the handsthat hang down and the feeble knees,13and make straight paths for your feet,so what is lame may not be dislocated,but rather be healed.
14Follow after peace with all men,and the sanctification withoutwhich no man will see the Lord,15looking carefully lest there be any manwho falls short of the grace of God,lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble youand many be defiled by it,