1 Thessalonians 4

1 As to the rest, then, brothers, we request, and call on you in the Lord Jesus, as you received from us how it is necessary for you to walk and to please God, that you may abound the more,

Further, Brothers, we beg and exhort you in the name of our Lord Jesus to carry out more fully than ever — as indeed you are already doing — all that you have heard from us as to what your daily life must be, if it is to please God.

2 for you have known what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus;

For you have not forgotten the directions that we gave you on the authority of our Lord Jesus.

3 for this is the will of God—your sanctification: that you abstain from the whoredom,

For this is God’s purpose — that you should be pure; abstaining from all immorality;

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

each of you recognising the duty of taking one woman for his wife, purely and honourably,

5 not in the affection of desire, as also the nations that were not knowing God,

and not for the mere gratification of his passions, like the Gentiles who know nothing of God;

6 that no one goes beyond and defrauds his brother in the matter, because the LORD [is] an avenger of all these, as we also spoke to you before and testified,

none of you over-reaching or taking advantage of his Brother in such matters. ‘The Lord takes vengeance’ upon all who do such things, as we have already warned you and solemnly declared.

7 for God did not call us to uncleanness, but in sanctification.

For God’s Call to us does not permit of an impure life, but demands purity.

8 He, therefore, who is despising, does not despise man, but God, who also gave His Holy Spirit to us.

Therefore he who disregards this warning disregards, not man, but God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

9 And concerning the brotherly love, you have no need of [my] writing to you, for you yourselves are God-taught to love one another,

As to love for the Brethren there is no need to write to you; for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another;

10 for you do it also to all the brothers who [are] in all Macedonia; and we call on you, brothers, to abound still more,

and indeed you do act in this spirit towards all the Brethren throughout Macedonia. Yet, Brothers, we urge you to still further efforts.

11 and to study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

Make it your ambition to live quietly, and to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we directed you;

12 that you may walk properly to those outside, and may have lack of nothing.

so that your conduct may win respect from those outside the Church, and that you may not want for anything.

13 And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that you may not sorrow, as also the rest who have no hope,

We do not wish you to remain in ignorance, Brothers, with regard to those who have passed to their rest, that your grief may not be like that of others, who have no hope.

14 for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with Him those asleep through Jesus,

For, as we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring, with Jesus, those who through him have passed to their rest.

15 for we say this to you in the word of the LORD, that we who are living—who remain over to the coming of the LORD—may not precede those asleep,

This we tell you on the authority of the Lord — that those of us who are still living at the Coming of the Lord will not anticipate those who have passed to their rest.

16 because the LORD Himself, with a shout, with the voice of a chief-messenger, and with the trumpet of God, will come down from Heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first;

For, with a loud summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the trumpet-call of God, the Lord himself will come down from Heaven.

17 then we who are living, who are remaining over, will be snatched up together with them in [the] clouds to meet the LORD in [the] air, and so we will always be with the LORD;

Then those who died in union with Christ shall rise first; and afterwards we who are still living shall be caught up in the clouds, with them, to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall be for ever with the Lord.

18 so, then, comfort one another with these words.

Therefore, comfort one another with what I have told you.