1 Thessalonians 4

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.