1 Thessalonians 4
1 Now, my fellow believers, [I want to write] about some other matters. Because we all have a close relationship with the Lord Jesus, we(exc) strongly urge you [DOU] to live in a way that pleases God. We taught you to do that, and you know that we lived that way as a result of what the Lord Jesus [told us]. We know that you are conducting your lives that way, but [we strongly urge] that you do that even more.
Wherefore, my brethren, I entreat you, and beseech you by our Lord Jesus, that, as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk, and to please God, so ye would make progress more and more.
For ye know what command we gave you in our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
3 God wants you to live pure lives that will show that you completely belong to him. He wants you to avoid doing any sexually immoral acts (OR, avoid being sexually immoral in any way).
For this is the pleasure of God, your sanctification; and that ye be separated from all whoredom;
4 [That is, he wants] each one of you to know how to control your own sexual desires [EUP]. He wants you to live pure lives that all people will see as good.
and that each one of you might know how to possess his vessel, in sanctity and in honor;
5 You must not lustfully desire [to do] immoral acts as unbelievers [MTY] [do] who do not obey God.
and not in the concupiscence of lust, like the rest of the Gentiles who know not God:
6 [God wants each one of you to control your sexual desires, in order that] no one of you sin against your fellow believer and take advantage of him or her by doing things like that. Remember that we strongly warned you previously [DOU] that the Lord [Jesus] will punish all [people who do] sexually immoral acts.
and that ye dare not to transgress and to overreach any one his brother, in this matter; because our Lord is the avenger of all these, as also we have said and testified to you in time past.
7 When God chose us [believers], he did not want us to [be people who] behave in a sexually immoral way. On the contrary, [he wants us] to be [people who] behave in a morally pure way.
For God did not call you unto impurity, but to sanctification.
8 So I warn you that those who disregard [this teaching] of mine [are] not just disregarding me. On the contrary, [they are disregarding] God, [because God commanded it. Remember that] God sent his Spirit, who is holy, [to live] in you!
He therefore who spurneth, spurneth not man but God, who hath given his Holy Spirit in you.
9 [I want to urge you] again [that you should] love [your] fellow believers [MET]. You do not really need that [anyone] write to you about that, because God has already taught you [how] to love each other,
Now concerning love to the brethren, ye need not that I should write to you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 and because you already are [showing that you love] your fellow believers [HYP] [who live] in other places [in your province] of Macedonia. Nevertheless, my fellow believers, we urge you to [love each other] even more.
Ye likewise do so, to all the brethren who are in all Macedonia: but I entreat you, my brethren, to be exuberant:
11 [We urge you] also to eagerly strive/try to mind your own affairs and to not meddle/interfere with the affairs of others. We urge you also to work at your own occupations/jobs [to earn what you need to live]. Remember that we taught you previously to live like that.
and that ye strive to be quiet, and to attend to your own affairs; and that ye labor with your own hands; as we directed you;
12 If you do these things, unbelievers will acknowledge/see that you behave decently/properly, and you will not have to depend on others [to] ([supply/give to you]) [what you need].
and that ye walk becomingly towards those without; and that ye be dependent on no man.
13 My fellow believers, we also want you to understand well [LIT] [what will happen] to our fellow believers [who now] are dead [EUP]. [You must not be/do like] the unbelievers. They [grieve deeply for people who die because] they do not confidently expect [people to live again after they die].
And, I wish you to know, my brethren, that ye should not mourn over them who have fallen asleep, like other people who have no hope.
14 We [believers] know that it is true that Jesus died and that he came back [to life] again. So [we also know well that] when Jesus returns, God [will cause] those [believers] who died [EUP] [to live again] and to come with [Jesus].
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them who sleep, will God, by Jesus, bring with him.
15 [I write this] because the Lord [Jesus] revealed [to me] what I am now telling you. [Some of you may think that] when the Lord [Jesus] comes back, he will consider that we [believers] who are still living will be superior to those [believers] who have died [EUP], because [we will meet Jesus first. That is certainly not true]!
And this we say to you, by the word of our Lord, that we who may survive and be alive, at the coming of our Lord, shall not precede them who have slept.
16 It is the Lord [Jesus] himself who will descend from heaven. [When he comes down, he] will command all of [us believers to rise from their graves]. The chief angel will shout [loudly], and [another angel] will blow a trumpet for God. Then (OR, As a result), the first thing that will happen is that the people who [trusted] in Christ before they died will live again.
Because our Lord will himself descend from heaven, with the mandate, and with the voice of the chief angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead who are in the Messiah, will first arise;
17 After that, [God] will powerfully take up into the clouds all of us [believers] who are still living [on this earth]. [He will take us] and those [other believers who have died], in order that [we all] might together meet/welcome the Lord [Jesus] in the sky. As a result of that, we [all] will be with him forever.
and then, we who survive and are alive shall be caught up together with them to the clouds, to meet our Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with our Lord.
18 Because [all this is true], encourage/comfort each other by reminding each other of this teaching.
Wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words.
