1 Thessalonians 4 WBT
Summary: Paul urges the Thessalonians to continue walking in a way that pleases God, specifically calling for sexual purity, self-control, and brotherly love, since God has called them to holiness, not impurity. He instructs them to live quietly, mind their own affairs, and work with their hands so as to walk properly before outsiders. Addressing grief over believers who have died, Paul assures them that at Christ's return the dead in Christ will rise first, followed by the living being caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord. He closes with the charge to "encourage one another with these words" (v. 18).
1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [so] ye would abound more and more.
2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
3For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from lewdness.
4That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;
5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles who know not God:
6That no [man] go beyond and defraud his brother in [any] matter: because the Lord [is] the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
7For God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
8He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given to us his holy Spirit.
9But concerning brotherly love ye need not that I write to you: for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
10And indeed ye do it towards all the brethren who are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
11And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12That ye may walk honestly towards them that are without, and [that] ye may have need of nothing.
13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.
14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [and] remain to the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep.
16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17Then we who are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.
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