Christ or Judgment

²⁶ For if we go on ^(A)sinning willfully after receiving ^(B)the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a terrifying expectation of ^(C)judgment and ^(D)the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. ^28 (E)Anyone who has ignored the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ^29 (F)How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve ^(G)who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean ^(H)the blood of the covenant ^(I)by which he was sanctified, and has ^(J)insulted the Spirit of grace?

³⁶ For you have need of ^(A)endurance, so that when you have ^(B)done the will of God, you may ^(C)receive ^[a]what was promised.

³⁹ But ^[a]we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith for the safekeeping of the soul.

²⁷ but I strictly discipline ^(A)my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

²⁰ For if, after they have ^(A)escaped the defilements of the world by ^(B)the knowledge of the ^(C)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again ^(D)entangled in them and are overcome, ^(E)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ^21 (F)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from ^(G)the holy commandment ^(H)handed on to them. ^22 [a]It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “^(I)A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

The Danger of Unbelief

^12 (A)Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart ^[a]that falls away from ^(B)the living God. ¹³ But ^(C)encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the ^(D)deceitfulness of sin.

^5 (A)Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; ^(B)examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you ^[a](C)fail the test?

¹⁹ keeping ^(A)faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to ^[a](B)their faith.

¹⁶ And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷ and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they ^[a]fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹ but the worries of ^(A)the ^[b]world, and the ^(B)deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it ^[c]becomes unfruitful.