1 Thessalonians 4
Living that pleases God
1 So then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to keep living the way you already are and even do better in how you live and please God—just as you learned from us.2 You know the instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.3 God’s will is that your lives are dedicated to him.t This means that you stay away from sexual immorality4 and learn how to control your own body in a puret and respectable way.5 Don’t be controlled by your sexual urges like the Gentiles who don’t know God.6 No one should mistreat or take advantage of their brother or sister in this issue. The Lord punishes people for all these things, as we told you before and sternly warned you.7 God didn’t call us to be immoral but to be dedicated to him.t
8 Therefore, whoever rejects these instructions isn’t rejecting a human authority. They are rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
9 You don’t need us to write about loving your brothers and sisters because God has already taught you to love each other.10 In fact, you are doing loving deeds for all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. Now we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do so even more.11 Aim to live quietly, mind your own business, and earn your own living, just as I told you.
12 That way you’ll behave appropriately toward outsiders, and you won’t be in need.
Believers who have died
13 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about people who have diedt so that you won’t mourn like others who don’t have any hope.14 Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus.15 What we are saying is a message from the Lord: we who are alive and still around at the Lord’s coming definitely won’t go ahead of those who have died.16 This is because the Lord himself will come down from heaven with the signal of a shout by the head angel and a blast on God’s trumpet. First, those who are dead in Christ will rise.17 Then, we who are living and still around will be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet with the Lord in the air. That way we will always be with the Lord.
18 So encourage each other with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4
A Life Pleasing to God
1 Finally then, brothers and sisters,t we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about hows you must live and please God (as you are in fact living)s that you do so more and more.2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.3 For this is God’s will: that you become holy,t that you keep away from sexual immorality,4 that each of you know how to possess his own bodyt in holiness and honor,5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.6 In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him,t because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases,t as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly.7 For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.
8 Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authorityt but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
9 Now on the topic of brotherly lovet you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.10 And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisterst in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,s11 to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you.
12 In this way you will livet a decent life before outsiders and not be in need.t
The Lord Returns for Believers
13 Now we do not want you to be uninformed,t brothers and sisters,t about those who are asleep,t so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe thatt God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.t15 For we tell you this by the word of the Lord,s that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep.16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel,t and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.17 Then we who are alive, who are left,s will be suddenly caught upt togethert with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.