1 Thessalonians · Chapter 4
1 Thessalonians 4
Berean Standard Bible · Public domain · Source credits
Living to Please God
1Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.
2For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
4each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,*
5not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.*
7For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
8Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
9Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
10And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more
11and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.
12Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.
The Return of the Lord
13Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.*
14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
15By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.
16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
17After that, we who are alive and 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.
Source notes
Old Testament references
References from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Text from the Berean Standard Bible.
Job 17:9Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
Psalms 92:14In old age they will still bear fruit; healthy and green they will remain,
Proverbs 4:18The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.
Ezekiel 3:17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.
Psalms 40:8I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
Psalms 143:10Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
1 Samuel 21:5David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the equipment of the young men is holy, as it is even on common missions, and all the more at this time.”
Exodus 20:15You shall not steal.
Exodus 20:17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Leviticus 19:11You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another.
Leviticus 19:13You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
Deuteronomy 24:7If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.