1 Thessalonians 4

Live to please God

Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.a ²For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;b ⁴each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

⁷For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.c ⁸Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.d ⁹Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.e

¹⁰And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more ¹¹and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.f ¹²Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.g

Those who have fallen asleep

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.h ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.i ¹⁵By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.j

¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.k ¹⁷After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.l ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.m