1So, since that is true, we must pay very careful attention to what we have heard about God’s Son, in order that we do not drift away from it, as a boat drifts off its course when people do not guide it [MET].
2God’s laws that were given by angels were valid, and God justly punished all who rejected them and all who disobeyed [DOU] them.
3So, we will certainly not escape God punishing us if we ignore such a great message about how God [MTY] saves us! [RHQ] This new message was first spoken by the Lord Jesus {The Lord Jesus first spoke this message}. Then it was confirmed to us by those who heard what the Lord told them {those who heard what the Lord told them confirmed it to us}.
4God also confirmed to us that this message was true by enabling believers to do many things that showed God’s power, to do other miraculous things [DOU], and to do other things by the gifts that the Holy Spirit distributed to them according to what God desired.
5God has determined that the angels will not rule over everything. Instead, he has determined that Christ will rule in the new world that God will create. That is the new world about which I am writing.
6Someone spoke to God about this somewhere in the Scriptures, saying,
7So it is surprising that you have caused people to be for a little while inferior in rank to angels.
8You have put everything under people’s control [MET].
9But we do know about Jesus, who truly has authority over everything!
10It was fitting that God make Jesus ◄perfect/all that God intended him to be►. God was enabling many people who would belong to him [MET] to share his glory. God is the one who created all things, and he is the one for whom all things exist. He perfected Jesus by causing him to suffer and die. Jesus is the one whom God uses to save people.
11Jesus is the one who ◄makes people holy/sets people apart for God►, and they all belong to God’s family. As a result, Christ gladly [LIT] proclaims them to be like his own brothers and sisters.
12The Psalmist wrote what Christ said to God about us becoming his brothers, in these words:
13And a prophet wrote in another Scripture passage what Christ said about God,
14So, since those whom God calls his children are all human beings [MTY], Jesus also became a human being just like them. The devil has the power to cause people to be afraid to die, but Christ became human in order that by his dying he might make the devil powerless.
15Jesus did that to free all of us who are like slaves [MET] all the time we live, because we are forced to be afraid to die.
16Because Jesus became a human being, it is not angels whom he wants to help. No, it is we who trust God as Abraham did whom he wants to help.
17So, since he came to help humans, not angels, he had to be made exactly like us whom he calls his own brothers and sisters. He wants to be a Supreme Priest who acts mercifully to all people and who faithfully does what God wants, so that people who had sinned would be declared no longer guilty.
18Specifically, he is able to help those/us who are tempted to sin. He can do that because he suffered, and he was also tempted to sin like we are tempted to sin.