Shared Word Translation
1 Thessalonians 4
A Life Pleasing to God
Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God—just as you are doing—you should abound more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, your holiness: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of desire like the Gentiles who do not know God;
that no one transgress and exploit his brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God did not call us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not a human being but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Love for One Another
Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for indeed you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to abound more and more,
and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
The Coming of the Lord
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.
For this we say to you by a word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.