1 Thessalonians
Chapter 4
1 We ask you, friends, and encourage you in Jesus’ name, to live as we taught you, so you can please God and keep growing in it.
2 You know the commands we gave you from Jesus.
3 God wants you to be holy and avoid sexual immorality.
4 Each of you should know how to live with your body in a way that is holy and respectful.
5 Do not follow strong sexual desires, like the non-believers who do not know God.
6 Let no one take advantage of or cheat their fellow in any matter; for God punishes all such acts, as we have already warned and confirmed to you.
7 God has not called us to be unclean, but to be holy.
8 So, if someone disrespects, they don’t disrespect people but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit.
9 Regarding loving others like brothers, you don’t need me to write to you, because God has taught you to love each other.
10 You are showing love to all God’s people in Macedonia, but we urge you, friends, to do so more and more.
11 Work hard and mind your own business, just as we told you.
12 Live honestly with those outside your group, so you won’t need anything from others.
13 I want you to understand, friends, about those who have died, so you won’t be sad like others who have no hope.
14 If we believe that Jesus died and came back to life, then God will also bring with him those who have died believing in Jesus.
15 We tell you, by God’s message, that those of us who are alive and left until God’s return will not go ahead of those who have died.
16 God will come down from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with God’s trumpet: and those who believed in Christ and have died will come back to life first.
17 We who are alive and left will be lifted up with them in the clouds to meet God in the sky, and we will always be with God.
18 Therefore, encourage each other with these words.