Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

2 My brothers, we want to talk to you about the time when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again and we are taken to meet him.

² Do not let your minds be easily upset. Do not be troubled by a spirit, or a message, or a letter. Do not be troubled if you hear that the day of the Lord has already come. Some people will say it came from us.

³ Do not let anyone fool you in any way. Before the day of the Lord comes, many people will stop believing God. The Man of Evil will be seen. He is the evil one who will be destroyed for ever.

⁴ He will put himself against God. He will put himself above everything to do with God, and above everything that people worship. He will sit in God's holy place and tell people that he is God.

⁵ You remember that I told you these things when I was still with you.

¹³ My brothers, the Lord loves you. We should thank God for you always. Here is why. From the beginning God chose you to be saved. You were saved because the Spirit made you holy and because you believed the true message.

¹⁴ God called you to be saved by the good news we brought you. He did this so that you would have some of the honour which the Lord Jesus Christ has.

¹⁵ So my brothers, be strong. Hold on to the things we taught you by our words or by letter.

¹⁶ God has loved us and made us happy through his kindness. He gave us everlasting comfort and good hope.

¹⁷ May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, comfort your hearts and make you strong to do and say everything that is good.

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees came to Jesus. (They say that people do not rise from death.)

²⁸ They came to ask Jesus a question. `Teacher,' they said, `Moses gave us this law: "If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, then his brother must marry the wife and raise a family for his brother."

²⁹ There were seven brothers. The first one married. He died and left no children.

³⁰ The second one married the wife.

³¹ Then the third one married her. All seven brothers married her. They all had no children and they died.

³² Last of all, the woman died also.

³³ Now then, when people rise from death, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her.'

³⁴ Jesus said to them, `Men and women in this world marry.

³⁵ But men and women who are good enough to have a place in the next world and to be raised from death do not marry.

³⁶ They cannot die again. They are like angels. They are God's children because they have been raised from death.

³⁷ Even Moses showed that people do rise from death. It is in his book where we read about the small tree which burned. Moses says that the Lord is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

³⁸ He is not the God of dead people, but of living people. All people are alive to him.'