1 Thessalonians 4

1Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are also walking, you abound more and more.

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

3For this is the will of God: your sanctification—that you abstain from sexual immorality.

4that each of you know how to acquire his own vessel in holiness and honor,

5not in the passion of lust, just as also the Gentiles who do not know God,

6that no one should overstep and exploit his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger concerning all these things, just as we also told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

7For God did not call us for uncleanness, but in holiness.

8Therefore, whoever rejects this rejects not man but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.

9Concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

10For indeed you are doing this toward all the brothers throughout all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to abound still more,

11and to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, just as we commanded you,

12so that you may walk properly before outsiders and have need of nothing.

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve as the rest do, who have no hope.

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

15For this we say to you by a word from the Lord: that we who are living, who remain until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first,

17Then we who are alive, who 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.