Book of Common Prayer

Creation renewed and patient hope

¹⁸ This is how I work it out. The sufferings we go through in the present time are not worth putting in the scale alongside the glory that is going to be unveiled for us. ¹⁹ Yes: creation itself is on tiptoe with expectation, eagerly awaiting the moment when God’s children will be revealed. ²⁰ Creation, you see, was subjected to pointless futility, not of its own volition, but because of the one who placed it in this subjection, in the hope ²¹ that creation itself would be freed from its slavery to decay, to enjoy the freedom that comes when God’s children are glorified.

²² Let me explain. We know that the entire creation is groaning together, and going through labor pains together, up until the present time. ²³ Not only so: we too, we who have the first fruits of the spirit’s life within us, are groaning within ourselves, as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ We were saved, you see, in hope. But hope isn’t hope if you can see it! Who hopes for what they can see? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it eagerly—but also patiently.

The question of the resurrection

²³ The same day some Sadducees came to him. (The Sadducees deny the resurrection.) Their question was this.

²⁴ “Teacher,” they began, “Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry his widow and raise up seed for his brother.’ ²⁵ Well now, there were seven brothers living among us. The first got married, and then died, and since he didn’t have children he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened with the second and the third, and so on with all seven. ²⁷ Last of all the woman died. ²⁸ So: in the resurrection, whose wife will she be, of all the seven? All of them had married her, after all.”

²⁹ This was Jesus’ answer to them: “You are quite mistaken,” he said, “because you don’t know your Bibles or God’s power. ³⁰ In the resurrection, you see, people don’t marry or get married off; they are like angels in heaven. ³¹ But as for the resurrection of the dead, did you never read what was said to you by God, in these words: ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He isn’t God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³ The crowds heard this, and they were astonished at his teaching.

The Great Commandment, and David’s Master

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they got together in a group. ³⁵ One of them, a lawyer, put him on the spot with this question.

³⁶ “Teacher,” he said, “which is the most important commandment in the law?”

³⁷ “You must love the Lord your God,” replied Jesus, “with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the first commandment, and it’s the one that really matters. ³⁹ The second is similar, and it’s this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ The entire law hangs on these two commandments—and that goes for the prophets, too.”