Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Paul explains that the day of the Lord does not come until the departing from the faith comes first, and therefore he exhorts them not to be deceived, but to stand steadfast in the things that he has taught them.

2 We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in that we shall assemble unto him, ² not to be suddenly moved from your mind. And be not troubled, neither by spirit nor by words, nor yet by letter which seems to come from us, as though the day of Christ were at hand. ³ Let no man deceive you by any means. For the Lord comes not unless there come a departing first and that sinful man be revealed – the son of perdition, ⁴ who is an adversary, and is exalted above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he shall sit as God in the temple of God and show himself as God.

⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?

¹³ But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you for salvation, through sanctifying by the Spirit and through believing the truth, ¹⁴ to which he called you by our gospel, to obtain the glory that comes of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ Therefore, brethren, stand fast. And keep the ordinances that you have been taught, whether it was by our preaching or by epistle.

¹⁶ May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, ¹⁷ comfort your hearts and establish you in all doctrine and good-doing.

²⁷ Then there came to him certain of the Sadducees, who deny that there is any resurrection. ²⁸ And they asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if any man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no issue, then his brother should take his wife and raise up seed for his brother. ²⁹ There were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ And the second took the wife, but he died childless. ³¹ And the third took her, and so on likewise the rest of the seven, leaving no children behind them, and died. ³² Last of all, the woman died also. ³³ Now at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the brothers? For seven had her as wife.

³⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, The children of this world marry and are married, ³⁵ but those who will be made worthy to enjoy that world, and the resurrection from death, neither marry, nor are married, ³⁶ nor yet can die any more. For they are like the angels, and are the sons of God inasmuch as they are the children of the resurrection. ³⁷ And that the dead shall rise again, even Moses signified in his account of the bush when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. For all live in him.