1 Thessalonians 4

1 Finally then, brothers, we urge and exhort you in the Lord Jesus: as you received from us how you ought to behave and please God, do so even more

As to what remains, then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us, how you ought to walk, and please God, you would more abound in it.

2 —you know what instructions we gave you through Sovereign Jesus.

For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus;

3 Now this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you stay away from fornication;

for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from whoredom--

4 that each of you know how to gain possession of his own ‘vessel’ in sanctification and honor,

that every one of you should know how to possess his own body in sanctification and honor--

5 not in lustful passion (like the heathen who do not know God);

not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God.

6 that no one trespass and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such behavior, as, indeed, we have already told you and warned you.

That no man should go beyond bounds, or defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all such;

7 Because God did not call us for uncleanness, but by holiness.

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

8 So then, the rejecter is not rejecting man, but God, the very One who gave you His Holy Spirit.

Therefore, indeed, he who despises not man, but God, who certainly has given to us his Holy Spirit.

9 Now about brotherly love you do not need to be written to, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,

But, concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

10 because in fact you are doing so toward all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Still, we exhort you to do even more, brothers,

And, indeed, you do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia: but we exhort you, brethren, still to abound,

11 to make it a point to be peaceable and to mind your own business, to work with your hands (as we instructed you),

and earnestly study to be quiet; and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you:

12 so that outsiders may be well impressed by your life style, and that you may have no lack.

that you may walk decently toward them who are without, and may have need of nothing.

13 Now then, brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who have ‘fallen asleep’, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

Now, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them who sleep; that you may not be grieved, even as the others, who have no hope.

14 Because since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, just so will God bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again; so, also, them who sleep, will God, through Jesus, bring with him.

15 For this we say to you by a word of the Lord, that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will absolutely not precede those who have fallen asleep;

Besides, this we affirm to you, by the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain at the coming of the Lord, shall not anticipate them who are asleep:

16 because the Lord Himself—with a commanding shout, with the archangel's voice and with God's trumpet—will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first;

for the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the Arch Angel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first;

17 then we who are still alive, who are left, will be snatched up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. In precisely this way we will always be with the Lord.

afterward we, the living, who remain, shall, at the same time with them, be instantly taken up in clouds, to join the Lord in the air; and so we shall be for ever with the Lord.

18 So then, comfort one another with these words.

Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.