| 4:1 | Finally then, brothers and sisters,* we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how* you must live and please God (as you are in fact living)* that you do so more and more. |
| 4:2 | For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. |
| 4:3 | For this is God’s will: that you become holy,* that you keep away from sexual immorality, |
| 4:4 | that each of you know how to possess his own body* in holiness and honor, |
| 4:5 | not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. |
| 4:6 | In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him,* because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases,* as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly. |
| 4:7 | For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. |
| 4:8 | Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority* but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. |
| 4:9 | Now on the topic of brotherly love* you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. |
| 4:10 | And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters* in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,* |
| 4:11 | to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you. |
| 4:12 | In this way you will live* a decent life before outsiders and not be in need.* |
| 4:13 | Now we do not want you to be uninformed,* brothers and sisters,* about those who are asleep,* so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. |
| 4:14 | For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that* God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.* |
| 4:15 | For we tell you this by the word of the Lord,* that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. |
| 4:16 | For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel,* and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. |
| 4:17 | Then we who are alive, who are left,* will be suddenly caught up* together* with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. |
| 4:18 | Therefore encourage one another with these words. |
1 Thessalonians 4 - NET Bible [draft]
