Book of Common Prayer

¹⁶ And so we are not wearied, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our exceeding tribulation, which is momentary and light, prepares an exceeding and an eternal weight of glory for us, ¹⁸ while we look not on the things that are seen, but on the things which are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, are eternal.

The reward for suffering trouble.

5 We know surely that if our earthly abode, the tabernacle we now dwell in, were destroyed, we have an abode prepared by God: a habitation not made with hands, but eternal in heaven. ² And for this we sigh, desiring to be clothed with our dwelling which is from heaven – ³ if yet we be found clothed, and not naked. ⁴ For as long as we are in this tabernacle, we sigh and are grieved. For we would not be unclothed, but would be clothed upon, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

⁵ He who has ordained us for this thing is God, the very same who has given to us the earnest of the Spirit. ⁶ Therefore we are always of good cheer. And we know well that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from God. ⁷ For we walk in faith, and see not. ⁸ Nevertheless, we are of good comfort – and yet would rather be away from the body, and be present with the Lord.

⁹ And so whether we are at home or away from home, we endeavour to please him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that every person may receive the works of his body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad.

¹⁸ Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him. And they asked him, saying, ¹⁹ Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if any man’s brother dies and leaves his wife behind him, and leaves no children, that then his brother should take his wife and raise up seed for his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brethren. The first took a wife, and when he died left no seed behind him. ²¹ And the second took her, and died also not leaving any seed. And the third likewise. ²² And all seven had her, but left no seed behind them. Last of all, the wife died also. ²³ In the resurrection then, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For seven of them had her as wife.

²⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, Are you not therefore deceived, and do not understand the scriptures, nor the power of God? ²⁵ For when they rise again from death, people neither marry nor are married, but are as the angels who are in heaven. ²⁶ And concerning the dead, that they will rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? ²⁷ He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly deceived.