Moral Benefits of Wisdom

¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,^[a] if the world hates you.^{(A) 14} We know that we have passed from death to life,^(B) because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.^{(C) 15} Anyone who hates a brother or sister^(D) is a murderer,^(E) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.^(F)

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.^(G) And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.^{(H) 17} If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,^(I) how can the love of God be in that person?^{(J) 18} Dear children,^(K) let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.^(L)

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends,^(M) if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God^{(N) 22} and receive from him anything we ask,^(O) because we keep his commands^(P) and do what pleases him.^{(Q) 23} And this is his command: to believe^(R) in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,^(S) and to love one another as he commanded us.^{(T) 24} The one who keeps God’s commands^(U) lives in him,^(V) and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.^(W)

On Denying the Incarnation

4 Dear friends,^(X) do not believe every spirit,^(Y) but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.^{(Z) 2} This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^(AA) is from God,^{(AB) 3} but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(AC) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(AD)

⁴ You, dear children,^(AE) are from God and have overcome them,^(AF) because the one who is in you^(AG) is greater than the one who is in the world.^{(AH) 5} They are from the world^(AI) and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.^(AJ) This is how we recognize the Spirit^[b] of truth^(AK) and the spirit of falsehood.^(AL)

Wisdom Bestows Well-Being

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar^(A)

¹³ Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians^(B) to Jesus to catch him^(C) in his words. ¹⁴ They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax^[a] to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”^(D)

And they were amazed at him.

Marriage at the Resurrection^(E)

¹⁸ Then the Sadducees,^(F) who say there is no resurrection,^(G) came to him with a question. ¹⁹ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.^{(H) 20} Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. ²¹ The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. ²² In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³ At the resurrection^[b] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

²⁴ Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures^(I) or the power of God? ²⁵ When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.^{(J) 26} Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’^[c]?^{(K) 27} He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

The Greatest Commandment^(L)

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law^(M) came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[d] 30} Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[e](N) 31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[f](O) There is no commandment greater than these.”

³² “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.^{(P) 33} To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”^(Q)

³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”^(R) And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.^(S)