1 Thessalonians 4

THE CALL TO SANCTIFICATION

4Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing^B—do this even more. ²For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

³For this is God’s will,^ab your sanctification:^ac that you keep away^ad from sexual immorality, ⁴that each of you knows how to control his own body^C in holiness and honor, ⁵not with lustful passions,^ae like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. ⁶This means one must not transgress against and take advantage^af of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. ⁷For God has not called us to impurity^ag but to live in holiness. ⁸Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.^ah

LOVING AND WORKING

⁹About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God^ai to love one another.^{aj 10}In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia.^ak But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, ¹¹to seek to lead a quiet life,^al to mind your own business,^D and to work^am with your own hands, as we commanded you, ¹²so that you may behave properly^an in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.^Eao

THE COMFORT OF CHRIST’S COMING

¹³We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.^{ap 14}For if we believe that Jesus died and rose^aq again,^ar in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.^{as 15}For we say this to you by a word from the Lord:^at We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming^au will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.^{av 16}For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,^Fa with the archangel’s^b voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ^c will rise first. ¹⁷Then^d we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds^e to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸Therefore encourage^G one another with these words.