1 Thessalonians 4:1-18.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 (Good News Translation)
1Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to
please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we
beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more.
2For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of
the Lord Jesus.
3God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual
immorality.
4Each of you should know how to live with your wife
in a holy and honorable way,
5not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know
God.
6In this matter, then, none of you should do wrong to other
Christians or take advantage of them. We have told you this before, and we
strongly warned you that the Lord will punish those who do that.
7God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness.
8So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting a
human being, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
9There is no need to write you about love for each other. You
yourselves have been taught by God how you should love one another.
10And you have, in fact, behaved like this toward all the
believers in all of Macedonia. So we beg you, our friends, to do even
more.
11Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own
business, and to earn your own living, just as we told you before.
12In this way you will win the respect of those who are not
believers, and you will not have to depend on anyone for what you need.
13Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who
have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope.
14We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe
that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.
15What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who
are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have
died.
16There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice,
the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from
heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first;
17then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always
be with the Lord.
18So then, encourage one another with these words.
God bless you.
1Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to
please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we
beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more.
2For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of
the Lord Jesus.
3God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual
immorality.
4Each of you should know how to live with your wife
in a holy and honorable way,
5not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know
God.
6In this matter, then, none of you should do wrong to other
Christians or take advantage of them. We have told you this before, and we
strongly warned you that the Lord will punish those who do that.
7God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness.
8So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting a
human being, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
9There is no need to write you about love for each other. You
yourselves have been taught by God how you should love one another.
10And you have, in fact, behaved like this toward all the
believers in all of Macedonia. So we beg you, our friends, to do even
more.
11Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own
business, and to earn your own living, just as we told you before.
12In this way you will win the respect of those who are not
believers, and you will not have to depend on anyone for what you need.
13Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who
have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope.
14We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe
that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.
15What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who
are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have
died.
16There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice,
the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from
heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first;
17then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always
be with the Lord.
18So then, encourage one another with these words.
God bless you.
Comments