Letters to the Churches

Let us continue holding fast to the hope we acknowledge, without wavering; for the One who made the promise is trustworthy.

And let us keep paying attention to one another, in order to spur each other on to love and good deeds,

not neglecting our own congregational meetings, as some have made a practice of doing, but, rather, encouraging each other. And let us do this all the more as you see the Day approaching.

For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies.

Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.

Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God’s grace!

For the One we know is the One who said, “Vengeance is my responsibility; I will repay,” and then said, “Adonai will judge his people.”

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

But remember the earlier days, when, after you had received the light, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

Sometimes you were publicly disgraced and persecuted, while at other times you stood loyally by those who were treated this way.

For you shared the sufferings of those who had been put in prison. Also when your possessions were seized, you accepted it gladly; since you knew that what you possessed was better and would last forever.

So don’t throw away that courage of yours, which carries with it such a great reward.

For you need to hold out; so that, by having done what God wills, you may receive what he has promised.

For “There is so, so little time! The One coming will indeed come, he will not delay.

But the person who is righteous will live his life by trusting, and if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”

However, we are not the kind who shrink back and are destroyed; on the contrary, we keep trusting and thus preserve our lives!

Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see.

It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old.

By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena.

By trusting, Hevel offered a greater sacrifice than Kayin; because of this, he was attested as righteous, with God giving him this testimony on the ground of his gifts. Through having trusted, he still continues to speak, even though he is dead.

By trusting, Hanokh was taken away from this life without seeing death — “He was not to be found, because God took him away” — for he has been attested as having been, prior to being taken away, well pleasing to God.

And without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist and that he becomes a Rewarder to those who seek him out.

By trusting, Noach, after receiving divine warning about things as yet unseen, was filled with holy fear and built an ark to save his household. Through this trusting, he put the world under condemnation and received the righteousness that comes from trusting.

By trusting, Avraham obeyed, after being called to go out to a place which God would give him as a possession; indeed, he went out without knowing where he was going.