Book of Common Prayer

³⁰ And why should we face danger every hour? ³¹ I die every day—yes, that’s something for you to boast about, my dear family, and that’s the boast I have in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord! ³² If, in human terms, I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what use is that to me? If the dead are not raised, “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”!

³³ Don’t be deceived: “bad company kills off good habits”! ³⁴ Sober up; straighten up; stop sinning. Yes, some of you simply don’t know God! I’m saying this to bring shame on you.

The transformed resurrection body

³⁵ But someone is now going to say: “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they come back with?” ³⁶ Stupid! What you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ The thing you sow isn’t the body that is going to come later; it’s just a naked seed of, let’s say, wheat, or some other plant. ³⁸ God then gives it a body of the sort he wants, with each of the seeds having its own particular body.

³⁹ Not all physical objects have the same kind of physicality. There is one kind of physicality for humans, another kind for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ Some bodies belong in the heavens, and some on the earth; and the kind of glory appropriate for the ones in the heavens is different from the kind of glory appropriate for the ones on the earth. ⁴¹ There is one kind of glory for the sun, another for the moon, and another for the stars, since the stars themselves vary, with different degrees of glory.

Jesus condemns the cities

¹⁶ “What picture shall I give you for this generation?” asked Jesus. “It’s like a bunch of children sitting in the town square, and singing songs to each other. ¹⁷ This is how it goes:

¹⁸ “What do I mean? When John appeared, he didn’t have any normal food or drink—and people said ‘What’s got into him, then? Some demon?’ ¹⁹ Then along comes the son of man, eating and drinking normally, and people say, ‘Ooh, look at him—guzzling and boozing, hanging around with tax-collectors and other riff-raff.’ But, you know, wisdom is as wisdom does—and wisdom will be vindicated!”

²⁰ Then he began to berate the towns where he’d done most of his powerful deeds, because they hadn’t repented.

²¹ “A curse on you, Chorazin!” he said. “A curse on you, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen the kind of powerful things you saw, they would have repented long ago with hairshirts and ashes. ²² But I can tell you this: on the day of judgment Tyre and Sidon will have a better time of it than you will. ²³ And what about you, Capernaum? You think you’re going to be exalted to heaven, do you? No—you’ll be sent down to Hades! If the powerful works that happened in you had happened in Sodom, it would still be standing today. ²⁴ But I can tell you this: on the day of judgment the land of Sodom will have a better time of it than you will!”