Struggle renders a verb related to race in verse 1, but here the meaning is wider; a real battle, rather than an athletic competition, is probably now in the writer’s mind.

Against sin does not simply mean “against evil impulses within your own hearts”; it means essentially the same as “sinful men” in verse 3. Sin is now almost personified. This could be brought out by some such translation as “your struggle against the forces of sin” or even “… forces of evil.” However, it may not always be possible to speak of sin as a force which can initiate action or carry out some campaign of opposition. For many languages such happenings can only be attributed directly to people who sin. The struggle which is involved here is primarily a defensive struggle, as suggested by the rendering resist. Therefore in your struggle against sin may be expressed in some languages as “in defending yourself against sinners” or “in defending yourself when sinners attack you.”

The word for resist is not used anywhere else in the New Testament; in secular writings it has the meaning of passive “holding out” rather than that of active aggression.

To the point of being killed gives the meaning of King James Version‘s literal “unto blood.” “Blood” in the Bible often has the meaning of violent death. In this verse there is no idea of sacrifice. In 2 Maccabees 13.14 New English Bible translates the same phrase “to the death.” You have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed may be rendered as “you have not yet had to endure to the point where people killed you.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .