Endurance in Suffering

Hebrews 12:1-13 portrays the suffering of its readers with two images: an athletic contest and God''s fatherly discipline. N. Clayton Croy places this important passage in the context of Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions. He argues that the idea of training unites the passage which presents Jesus as the supreme athlete. It also supports a nonpunitive understanding of discipline in which God''s children undergo a positive process of education. These ideas combine to support a call in Hebrews to faithful endurance rather than repentance.