1 Thessalonians 4
1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the
Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please
God, so ye would abound more and more.
2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye
should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in
sanctification and honour;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know
not God:
6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter:
because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you
and testified.
7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath
also given unto us his holy Spirit.
9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you:
for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all
Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and
to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that
ye may have lack of nothing.
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which
are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which 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.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
