Hebrews 12:1-2 Meaning: Lay Aside Every Weight
Not everything slowing you down is sin. Some of it is just extra.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)
The cloud of witnesses
The "therefore" points back to Hebrews 11: Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the rest. People who finished. They're the crowd in the stands.
Weight vs. sin
The word for weight is onkos. It means bulk, mass, extra. Not necessarily sinful. Runners in that world stripped everything off to race.
"Sin which clings so closely" is one Greek word, euperistatos: easily entangling, like a long robe wrapped around your legs. You can't run in it.
So the verse names two things: the stuff that's wrong, and the stuff that's just heavy. Both have to come off.
Endurance, not speed
The word for endurance is hypomone: staying power under a load. The word for race is agon, where we get "agony." This race is a struggle, and you don't win it with speed.
You win it looking to Jesus. The word means to look away from everything else, to Him. He's the archegos, the one who starts it, and the teleiotes, the one who finishes it. Verse 3 says consider Him, so you don't grow weary.
What weight do you need to lay down to run better?
Open your Bible and read Hebrews 12:1-3. Sit with it a minute, then go.