1 Thessalonians 4

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Living to Please God

¹Finally, 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.

¹Finally then, brothers, we ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, just as you received from us how it is necessary for you to walk and to please God, just as also you walk, that you may abound more.

²For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

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

³For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

³For this is the will of God—your sanctification: for you to abstain from sexual immorality;

⁴each of you must know how to control his own body^a in holiness and honor,

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

⁵not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

⁵not in the passion of lust just as also the Gentiles, those not knowing God;

⁶and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard,^a because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

⁶not to go beyond and to take advantage of his brother in the matter, because the Lord is avenging concerning all these things, just as also we said before to you and earnestly testified.

⁷For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

⁷For God did not call us to impurity, but in sanctification.

⁸Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

⁸So then, the one setting this aside does not set aside man but God, the One also giving His Holy Spirit to you.

⁹Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.

⁹Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for one to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

¹⁰And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more

¹⁰For also you are doing this to all the brothers, the ones in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, to abound more,

¹¹and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.

¹¹and to strive earnestly to live quietly and to do your own things, and to work with your own hands, just as we commanded you,

¹²Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.

¹²so that you may walk properly toward those outside and may have need of no one.

The Return of the Lord

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death,^a so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.

¹³But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those having fallen asleep, so that you should not be grieved, just as also the rest, those having no hope.

¹⁴For 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.

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

¹⁵By 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.

¹⁵For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we the living, remaining unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those having fallen asleep,

¹⁶For 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.

¹⁶because the Lord Himself with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷After 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.

¹⁷Then we, the living remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds for the meeting of the Lord in the air; and so we will be always with the Lord.

¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.

¹⁸Therefore encourage one another in these words.