Hebrews 12:1-2: Running the Race with Endurance

In the first two verses of the twelfth chapter, the author of Hebrews begins to apply all the truths presented in the first ten chapters. What will a life lived in confident trust in the Superior High Priest look like? How does an enduring and obedient faith work in everyday life? There is only one exhortation in the entire passage: "Let us run." This one verb is surrounded by a series of participles and prepositions that serve to tell us how we are to run the race. Everything else in the passage supports and serves this one exhortation. This passage does not tell us to run the race and do these other things, as well. These "other things" are the ways believers are to live lives of enduring obedient faith.