1 Thessalonians 4

1 Finally then, brothers, we ask and exhort you⁺ in the Lord Jesus that, just as you⁺ received from us how it is necessary for you⁺ to walk and to please God, just as also you⁺ walk, that you⁺ may abound more.

2 For you⁺ know what instructions we gave you⁺ through the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God—your⁺ sanctification: [for] you⁺ to abstain from sexual immorality;

4 [for] each of you⁺ to know [how] to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

5 not in the passion of lust just as also the Gentiles, those not knowing God;

6 not to go beyond and to take advantage of his brother in the matter, because the Lord [is] avenging concerning all these things, just as also we said before to you⁺ and earnestly testified.

7 For God did not call us to impurity, but in sanctification.

8 So then, the one setting [this] aside does not set aside man but God, the One also giving His Holy Spirit to you⁺.

9 Now concerning brotherly love, you⁺ have no need [for one] to write to you⁺, for you⁺ yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

10 For also you⁺ are doing this to all the brothers, the ones in all Macedonia. But we exhort you⁺, brothers, to abound more,

11 and to strive earnestly to live quietly and to do your own [things], and to work with your⁺ own hands, just as we commanded you⁺,

12 so that you⁺ may walk properly toward those outside and may have need of no one.

13 But we do not want you⁺ to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those having fallen asleep, so that you⁺ should not be grieved, just as also the rest, those having no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also through Jesus God will bring with Him those having fallen asleep.

15 For this we say to you⁺ in the word of the Lord, that we the living, remaining unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those having fallen asleep,

16 because the Lord Himself with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we, the living remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds for the meeting of the Lord in the air; and so we will be always with the Lord.

18 Therefore encourage one another in these words.