04:01 .. finally then .. brethren .. we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus .. that as you received from us ......... instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk) .. that you excel still more 04:02 .. for you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus
04:03 .. for this is the will of God .. your sanctification .. that is .. that you abstain from sexual immorality 04:04 .. that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor 04:05 .. not in lustful passion .. like the Gentiles who do not know God 04:06 .. and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things .. ......... just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you 04:07 .. for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity .. but in sanctification 04:08 .. so .. he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you
04:09 .. now as to the love of the brethren .. you have no need for anyone to write to you .. for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another 04:10 .. for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia .. but we urge you .. brethren .. ......... to excel still more 04:11 .. and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands .. ......... just as we commanded you 04:12 .. so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need
.................. those who died in Christ
04:13 .. but we do not want you to be uninformed .. brethren .. about those who are asleep .. ......... so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope 04:14 .. for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again .. even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus
04:15 .. for this we say to you by the word of the Lord .. that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord .. ......... will not precede those who have fallen asleep 04:16 .. for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout .. with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God .. ......... and the dead in Christ will rise first 04:17 .. then 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 shall always be with the Lord 04:18 .. therefore comfort one another with these words
The design of the Gospel is to teach men not only what they should believe .. but also how they should live .. It is God’s will that all his should be holy in heart and pure in body for “he that calleth us is holy” . . . the Christian .. should not be in ignorance of the blessed hope .. the return of Christ to resurrect the dead in him and translate living believers .. for this is designed to be the greatest comfort of believers . . . 1 Thess 4:16 the Lord Jesus himself .. not the Holy Spirit .. not the destruction of Jerusalem .. not the diffusion of Christianity .. not the death of the believer .. this is the blessed hope .. he is coming bringing with him the spirits of those who have died in him .. their bodies shall be raised and united then with their spirits .. at the same time .. living believers will be instantly changed and caught up in clouds to be with him ..... gty.org