12. You have become weak. So make yourselves strong again.
13. Keep on the right path so the weak will not stumble but rather be strengthened.
14. Try to live in peace with all people. And try to live lives free from sin. If anyone’s life is not holy, he will never see the Lord.
15. Be careful that no one fails to get God’s grace. Be careful that no one becomes like a bitter weed growing among you. A person like that can ruin all of you.
16. Be careful that no one takes part in sexual sin. And be careful that no person is unholy like Esau. He sold all his rights as the oldest son for a single meal.
17. You remember that after Esau did this, he wanted to get his father’s blessing. He wanted this blessing so much that he cried. But his father refused to give him the blessing, because Esau could find no way to change what he had done.
18. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire. You have not come to darkness, sadness and storms.
19. You have not come to the noise of a trumpet or to the sound of a voice. When the people of Israel heard the voice, they begged not to have to hear another word.
20. They did not want to hear the command: “If anything, even an animal, touches the mountain, it must be put to death with stones.”
21. What they saw was so terrible that Moses said, “I am shaking with fear.”
22. But you have not come to that kind of place. The new place you have come to is Mount Zion. You have come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands of angels gathered together with joy.
23. You have come to the meeting of God’s firstborn children. Their names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all people. And you have come to the spirits of good people who have been made perfect.
24. You have come to Jesus, the One who brought the new agreement from God to his people. You have come to the sprinkled blood that has a better message than the blood of Abel.
25. So be careful and do not refuse to listen when God speaks. They refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth. And they did not escape. Now God is warning us from heaven. So it will be worse for us if we refuse to listen to him.