1 Thessalonians 4

1 For the rest, then, brethren, we beg you and exhort you in [the] Lord Jesus, even as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more.

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.

2 For ye know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is [the] will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication;

For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,

each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

5 (not in passionate desire, even as the nations who know not God, )

not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

6 not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord [is] the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified.

and 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.

7 For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification.

For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

8 He therefore that [in this] disregards [his brother], disregards, not man, but God, who has given also his Holy Spirit to you.

Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

9 Now concerning brotherly love ye have no need that we should write to you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.

10 For also ye do this towards all the brethren in the whole of Macedonia; but we exhort you, brethren, to abound still more,

And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more

11 and to seek earnestly to be quiet and mind your own affairs, and work with your [own] hands, even as we charged you,

and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.

12 that ye may walk reputably towards those without, and may have need of no one.

Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.

13 But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are fallen asleep, to the end that ye be not grieved even as also the rest who have no hope.

Brothers, 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.

14 For if we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

For 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.

15 (For this we say to you in [the] word of [the] Lord, that we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep;

By 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.

16 for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;

For 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.

17 then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in [the] clouds, to meet the Lord in [the] air; and thus we shall be always with [the] Lord.

After 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.

18 So encourage one another with these words.)

Therefore encourage one another with these words.