Take heed to yourselves in case your hearts get overpowered by dissipation and drunkenness and worldly anxieties, and so that Day catches you suddenly like a trap.

The kingdom

"Repent, the Reign of heaven is near."

He put another parable before them. "The Realm of heaven," he said, "is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

For the Realm of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard;

"The Realm of heaven," he said, "may be compared to a king who gave a marriage-banquet in honour of his son.

Ten

I commend you for always bearing me in mind and for maintaining the traditions I passed on to you.

They have not been defiled by intercourse with women ??they are celibates; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they have been ransomed from among men, as the first to be reaped for God and the Lamb.

Which

So your light is to shine before men, that they may see the good you do and glorify your Father in heaven.

Keep your loins girt and your lamps lit,

so as to be blameless and innocent, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverse generation where you shine like stars in a dark world;

Went

Now the crown of a good life awaits me, with which the Lord, that just Judge, will reward me on the great Day ??and not only me but all who have loved and longed for his appearance.

awaiting the blessed hope of the appearance of the Glory of the great God and of our Saviour Christ Jesus,

so long as I am in this tent, I deem it proper to stir you up by way of reminder,

you who expect and hasten the advent of the Day of God, which dissolves the heavens in fire and makes the stars blaze and melt!

The bridegroom

Jesus said to them, "Can friends at a wedding mourn so long as the bride groom is beside them? A time will come when the bridegroom is taken from them, and then they will fast.

"The Realm of heaven," he said, "may be compared to a king who gave a marriage-banquet in honour of his son.

Jesus said to them, "Can friends at a wedding fast while the bridegroom is beside them? As long as they have the bridegroom beside them they cannot fast.

Jesus said to them, "Can you make friends at a wedding fast while the bride groom is beside them?

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens to him, is heartily glad at the sound of the bridegroom's voice. Such is my joy, and it is complete.

for I feel a divine jealousy on your behalf; I betrothed you as a chaste maiden to present you to your one husband Christ,

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Let us rejoice and triumph, let us give him the glory! For now comes the marriage of the Lamb; his bride has arrayed herself,

And I saw the holy City, the new Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, all ready like a bride arrayed for her husband.