1 Thessalonians 4

Christ’s Followers Must Live in Purity, Honor and Love

1-2 We commend you on how well you have followed our teachings of the Gospel. We want to encourage you in this, so that you will always walk before God in a way that pleases him, enjoying an ever-increasing abundance of the fruits of the Spirit.

3-6 In particular, be careful not to stray into sexual immorality, such as fornication. Those who do not know God, believing themselves to be free, are enslaved to passion and lust like animals, but you have been set free by Christ: so control your own bodies in holiness and honor, for it is God’s will that you be sanctified. And especially, do not seduce anyone or take sexual advantage of another person in any way.

7-8 God has called us, not to impurity, but to holiness. Anyone who rejects these teachings does not break rules made by men, but the Word of God Himself, and He Himself is the avenger of all these sins.

9-10 Concerning love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, you hardly need instruction. It seems you have learned how to love one another on your own, directly from the Holy Spirit. In fact, your love spreads throughout the lands of Macedonia. We want to encourage you in this, brothers and sisters, that your love will thrive more every day.

11-12 Aspire to live quietly; mind your own affairs; work with your hands. The aim of your lifestyle should be to become a model of conduct to the outside world and to need nothing from them. They will respect you for it.

The Dead Will Be Raised

13-14 On a different subject, we want you to understand something about those who have died in Christ, so that you will not mourn and grieve for the dead like those who have no hope. For once a person understands that Jesus died and then rose again from the dead, he also should understand that God intends to do the same for those who believe in Christ.

15-18 This is God’s Holy Word and His absolute promise to you. He will come again. And when He does, He will raise the dead from their sleep first, and when this is done, he will take care of us, the living. The Lord Himself, with the mighty cry of an archangel and the call of God’s trumpet, will raise the dead. And then, we who remain will be taken up into the clouds to meet with Christ and the resurrected, to live with the Lord, forever.

1 Finally, brothers, we ask you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that you should follow our instructions in your walk before God just as you are already doing, to please Him, that your abundance might increase all the more. 2 For you know the commandments we gave you on behalf of the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, 4 each of you controlling his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and not to transgress against others or take advantage of them in this regard; for as we have previously instructed and witnessed to you, God is the avenger of all these wrongs.

7 For God has called us, not to impurity, but to holiness; 8 thus, anyone who rejects this is not rejecting human advice, but the word of God, who gave the Holy Spirit to you.

9 We have no need to write you concerning brotherly love, for on your own you have been taught by God about loving one another; 10 in fact, your love goes out to the brothers in all of Macedonia. We encourage you, brothers, to abound in love more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly and look after your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, just as we instructed you, 12 so that you might live becomingly before the outside world and need nothing.

13 Now, we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who sleep, so that you will not grieve for them, as those who have no hope do. 14 For if we believe Jesus died and rose, then we know that God, through Jesus, will take the sleeping with Him.

15 This we tell you as the Word of the Lord, that when the Lord comes, we the living who have been left behind to await Him, will certainly not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 16 The Lord Himself, with a great cry in the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God, will descend from Heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise up first. 17 Then those of us who remain, still alive, will be taken up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, together with them; and thus we will be with the Lord forever.

18 So, comfort one another in this knowledge.

1 Finally therefore, brothers, we ask you and exhort you in lord Jesus, that just as you received from us the how it is necessary aBy extension, how you should. you to walk b Paul uses “walk” just as Christians today, to describe the process of living in the knowledge and presence of the Spirit; but the Greek verb is slightly different, meaning “to walk around”. and to please god, just as already you are walkingcOr in this manner also you must walk (live); the indicative and imperative forms are identical here, and one must decide from context whether Paul is reinforcing his previous directions to them, or whether he is telling them they are already doing it but encouraging them to continue., that you might have abundance more.

2 For you know what commands we gave to you through dOr on behalf of; by the authority of the lord Jesus.

3 For this is will of god, the sanctification of you, to abstain you from the fornication,

4 to know how each of you the of himself vessel eIdiom, one’s own body. This is probably a specific euphemism for the sex organ. A few commentators have speculated that this means wife but neither Greek diction nor the context support the view. to control in holiness and honor,

5 not in passion of lusts just as also the not-knowing-god Gentiles,

6 the not to transgress against and to take advantage of in the matter the brother of him, because avenger lord is concerning all these, as we both previously told to you and witnessed fOr warned..

7 For not has called us god for impurity but in holiness.

8 Consequently the rejecting not man rejects but god the giving the holy spirit g Lit. the god the giving the spirit of him the holy. of him to you.

9 Concerning now the brotherly love h Fyi, philadephias. no need you have to write to you, for yourselves you taught-by-god are in the to love one another;

10 for also you do it for all the brothers in whole the Macedonia. And we urge you, brothers, to abound even more,

11 and to aspire to live quietly and to engage in activity your own and to work with the own hands of you, just as to you we instructed,

12 that you might live becomingly withiOr before. the outside and of nothingjPer BDAG, nobody. need you might have.

13 Now not we want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning the sleeping, so that not to grieve like the not-having-hope others.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, just so god the having-gone-to-sleep through Jesus will take with him.

15 For this to you we say as word of lord, that we the being-left-behind living in the coming of the lord not notk Idiom, definitely not, an emphatic negative. Greek negation is complex; there are several words for negation, and “not not” is actually two different words, the second of which is used in conditional clauses; so perhaps not under any condition might be a good way to paraphrase the meaning. will precede the having-gone-to-sleep;

16 because himself the lord with lOr at; there is no way to tell whether Christ will make the sound Himself, directly, or whether it will emit from somebody or something else. cry of command, in voice of archangel and in trumpet of god, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise up first,

17 then we the being-left-behind living together with them will be snatched up in clouds to meeting mMeeting is a true noun, “act of meeting with”, not part of a verb phrase. of the lord in air; and thus forever with lord we will be.

18 Therefore comfort one another in the words these.