A Call to Endurance (2 Timothy 2:1–13)
2 UDB And let us keep thinking about Jesus and give him all our attention. He is the one who leads us, and he makes our faith complete. He is the one who endured the terrible suffering on the cross, and he paid no attention to the people who tried to shame him. He did this because he knew how joyful God would make him later. He now sits at the place of highest honor beside the throne where God rules in heaven. BSB BSB: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 UDB Jesus patiently endured it when sinful people hatefully acted against him. Strengthen your hearts and minds with Jesus's example so that you will not give up trusting God or become discouraged. BSB BSB: Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
God Disciplines His Sons 4 UDB While you have struggled against being tempted to sin, you have not yet bled and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did. BSB BSB: In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 UDB Do not forget these words that Solomon spoke to his son, which are the same with which God encourages you as his children: "My son, pay attention when the Lord is disciplining you, and do not be discouraged when the Lord punishes you BSB BSB: And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.
6 UDB because everyone the Lord loves he also disciplines, and he severely corrects everyone he calls his own." BSB BSB: For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”
7 UDB God may discipline you by requiring you to endure difficult things that happen to you. When God disciplines you, he is treating you as a father treats his children. All fathers discipline their children. BSB BSB: Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
8 UDB So if you have not experienced God disciplining you as he disciplines all of his children, you are not true children of God. You are like illegitimate children who have no father to correct them. BSB BSB: If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
9 UDB Furthermore, our natural fathers disciplined us when we were young, and we respected them for doing that. So we should certainly more readily accept God our spiritual Father disciplining us so that we will live eternally! BSB BSB: Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?
10 UDB Our natural fathers disciplined us for a short time as they considered right, but God always disciplines us to help us share in his holy nature. BSB BSB: Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.
11 UDB During the time God is disciplining us, it does not seem to be anything about which we can rejoice. Instead, it pains us. But later it causes those who have learned from it to live righteously, which produces peace in us. BSB BSB: No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.
12 UDB So, instead of acting as though you are spiritually tired, trust God's discipline to renew you. BSB BSB: Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.
13 UDB Go straight forward, following Christ so that believers who are weak in trusting Christ will gain strength from you and not become crippled. Instead, they will be spiritually restored in the way that an injured and useless limb becomes well again. BSB BSB: Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
A Call to Holiness (1 Peter 1:13–21)
14 UDB Try to live peacefully with all people. Do your best to be holy since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy. BSB BSB: Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
15 UDB Beware that none of you stops trusting in God, who has done kind things for us that we did not deserve. Be on guard so that none of you act in an evil way toward others, because that will grow like a root grows into a big plant, leading many believers to sin. BSB BSB: See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.
16 UDB Do not let anyone be immoral or disobey God like Esau. He exchanged the rights he had as a firstborn son for only one meal. BSB BSB: See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.
17 UDB Esau later wanted to get back his birth rights and all that his father Isaac's blessing would give him. But Isaac refused to do what Esau requested. So Esau found no way to get back his birth rights and blessing, even though he sought it tearfully. BSB BSB: For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.
An Unshakable Kingdom (Exodus 20:18–21; Deuteronomy 5:22–33)
18 UDB In coming to God, you have not experienced things like what the people of Israel experienced at Mount Sinai. They approached a mountain that God commanded them not to touch because he himself had come down to that mountain. They approached a blazing fire, and it was gloomy and dark, with a violent storm. BSB BSB: For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm;
19 UDB They heard a trumpet sound, and they heard God speak a message. It was so powerful that they pleaded for him not to speak to them like that again. BSB BSB: to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken.
20 UDB For God had commanded them, "If a person or even an animal touches this mountain, you must kill him." The people were terrified. BSB BSB: For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”
21 UDB Truly, because Moses was terrified after seeing what happened on the mountain, he said, "I am trembling because I am very afraid!" BSB BSB: The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
22 UDB Instead, you have come to the presence of God who truly lives in heaven, to the "New Jerusalem." That is like what your ancestors did when they came to worship God on Mount Zion in Israel, upon which the earthly Jerusalem was built. You have come to where there are countless angels who are rejoicing as they have gathered together. BSB BSB: Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
23 UDB You have joined the assembly of all the believers who have privileges as firstborn sons, whose names God has written down in heaven. You have come to God who will judge everyone. You have come to where the spirits of God's people are—people who lived righteously before they died and whom God has now made perfect in heaven. BSB BSB: in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
24 UDB You have come to Jesus, who arranged a new covenant between us and God by the blood that flowed when he died on the cross. Jesus's blood made it possible for God to forgive us, and his blood is better for us than Abel's blood. BSB BSB: to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25 UDB Make sure you obey the message that comes from God. God punished the people of Israel when they did not obey him, even though it was God who spoke to them from Mount Sinai. Do you think it is possible for you to escape punishment when you refuse to obey God who speaks to you from heaven? BSB BSB: See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?
26 UDB The earth shook when he spoke at Mount Sinai. But now he has promised, "I will shake the earth again, one more time, and I will shake the heavens, too." BSB BSB: At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”
27 UDB The words "again, one more time" indicate that God will remove those things on earth that he will shake, everything that he has created. He will do this in order that the things in heaven that cannot shake may remain forever. BSB BSB: The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.
28 UDB So let us thank God that we are becoming members of a kingdom that nothing can shake. Let us worship God by gratefully thanking him and by being greatly in awe of his great power and love. BSB BSB: Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
29 UDB Remember that the God we worship is like a fire that burns up everything that is impure! BSB BSB: “For our God is a consuming fire.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.