Wednesday 5 June 2024

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God,according to the promise of the lifewhich is in Christ Jesus,2to Timothy, my beloved child:Grace, mercy, and peace,from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did,with a pure conscience.How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day

· · · verses 4–5 are not read6For this cause, I remind youthat you should stir up the gift of Godwhich is in you through the laying on of my hands.7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear,but of power, love, and self-control.8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,nor of me his prisoner;but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,9who saved us and called us with a holy calling,not according to our works,but according to his own purpose and grace,which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior,Christ Jesus, who abolished death,and brought lifeand immortality to light through the Good News.11For this I was appointed as a preacher,an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.12For this cause I also suffer these things.

Yet I am not ashamed,for I know him whom I have believed,and I am persuaded that he is able to guard thatwhich I have committed to him against that day.

1I lift up my eyes to you,you who sit in the heavens.2Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

2as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,so our eyes look to the Lord, our God,until he has mercy on us.

18Some Sadducees, who saythat there is no resurrection, came to him.They asked him, saying,19“Teacher, Moses wrote to us,‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife behind him,and leaves no children,that his brother should take his wifeand raise up offspring for his brother.’20There were seven brothers.The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring.21The second took her,and died, leaving no children behind him.The third likewise;22and the seven took her and left no children.Last of all the woman also died.23In the resurrection,when they rise, whose wife will she be of them?For the seven had her as a wife.”

24Jesus answered them,“Isn’t this because you are mistaken,not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God?25For when they will rise from the dead,they neither marry nor are given in marriage,but are like angels in heaven.26But about the dead,that they are raised,haven’t you read in the book of Moses about the Bush,how God spoke to him,saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham,the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.You are therefore badly mistaken.”