1 Thessalonians 4

1 For the rest, brethren, we request and exhort you, in our Lord Jesus, [that], even as ye received from us, how ye must needs walk and please God, —even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more.

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

3 For, this, is a thing willed of God, your sanctification, —that ye should abstain from unchastity,

4 That ye should know, each one of you, how, of his own vessel, to possess himself in sanctification and honour:

5 Not with a passion of coveting, —just as even the nations who know not God, —

6 Not over-reaching and defrauding, in the matter, his brother; because, an avenger, is the Lord, concerning all these things, —even as we before told you, and solemnly called you to witness.

7 For God did not call us, with a permission of impurity, but, in sanctification.

8 Therefore, indeed, he that disregardeth—it is, not a man, he disregardeth, but God, —Who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you.

9 But, concerning brotherly love—no need, have ye, that we be writing unto you; for, ye yourselves, are, God-taught, to the loving of one another; —

10 And, in fact, ye are doing it unto all the brethren [who are] in the whole of Macedonia; but we exhort you, brethren, to abound still more,

11 And to be ambitious to be quiet, and to be attending to your own affairs, and to be working with your hands, —even as, unto you, we gave charge—

12 That ye should walk reputably toward those without, and, of no one, have, need.

13 But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are falling asleep, —lest ye be sorrowing, even as the rest also, who are without hope;

14 For, if we believe that, Jesus, died, and rose again, so, also will, God, bring forth with him, them who have fallen asleep through Jesus;

15 For, this, unto you, do we say, by a word of the Lord, —that, we, the living who are left unto the Presence of the Lord, shall in nowise get before them who have fallen asleep;

16 Because, the Lord himself, with a word of command, with a chief-messenger’s voice, and with a trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven, —and, the dead in Christ, shall rise, first,

17 After that, we, the living who are left, together with them, shall be caught away, in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: —and, thus, evermore, with the Lord, shall we be!

18 So then, be consoling one another with these words.