Chapter 4

Sanctification and Love

1 aFinally then, bbrethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to 1cwalk and dplease God (just as you actually do 1walk), that you eexcel still more.

2 For you know what commandments we gave you 1by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you aabstain from 1sexual immorality;

4 that aeach of you know how to 1possess his own 2bvessel in sanctification and chonor,

5 not in 1alustful passion, like the Gentiles who bdo not know God;

6 and that no man transgress and adefraud his brother bin the matter because cthe Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also dtold you before and solemnly warned you.

7 For aGod has not called us for bthe purpose of impurity, but 1in sanctification.

8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who agives His Holy Spirit to you.

9 Now as to the alove of the brethren, you bhave no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are ctaught by God to love one another;

10 for indeed ayou do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to bexcel still more,

11 and to make it your ambition ato lead a quiet life and battend to your own business and cwork with your hands, just as we commanded you,

12 so that you will 1abehave properly toward boutsiders and 2cnot be in any need.

Those Who Died in Christ

13 But awe do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who bare asleep, so that you will not grieve as do cthe rest who have dno hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, aeven so God will bring with Him bthose who have fallen asleep 1in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you aby the word of the Lord, that bwe who are alive 1and remain until cthe coming of the Lord, will not precede dthose who have fallen asleep.

16 For the Lord aHimself bwill descend from heaven with a 1cshout, with the voice of dthe archangel and with the etrumpet of God, and fthe dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then awe who are alive 1and remain will be bcaught up together with them cin the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always dbe with the Lord.

18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.