1 Thessalonians 4

1Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus: you learned from us how to live in a way that pleases God, and you are doing it. Now do it more and more.

2You know the instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3It is God's will that you be holy: that you stay away from sexual sin;

4that each of you learn to control your own body in a holy and honorable way,

5not in lustful desire like the people who do not know God;

6and that no one wrong or cheat a brother or sister in this matter. The Lord will punish people for all such sins, as we already told you and warned you.

7For God did not call us to be impure, but to be holy.

8So anyone who rejects this teaching is not rejecting a human being, but God, who gives you His Holy Spirit.

9Now about love for one another, you do not need anyone to write to you, because God Himself has taught you to love each other.

10And in fact you do love all the believers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do this more and more.

11Make it your goal to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, just as we told you,

12so that your daily life will earn the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not need to depend on anyone.

13Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uncertain about those who have died, so that you do not grieve like other people, who have no hope.

14We believe that Jesus died and rose again. So we also believe that God will bring back with Jesus those who have died believing in Him.

15We tell you this as a message from the Lord: we who are still alive when the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.

16For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the chief angel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead who belong to Christ will rise first.

17After that, we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

18So encourage one another with these words.