Plea for Purity
1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesusthat you should abound more and more,just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this isthe will of God,your sanctification:that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passion of lust,like the Gentileswho do not know God;
6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lordisthe avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness,but in holiness.
8 Therefore he who rejectsthisdoes not reject man, but God,who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
A Brotherly and Orderly Life
9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, foryou yourselves are taught by Godto love one another;
10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren,that you increase more and more;
11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life,to mind your own business, andto work with your own hands, as we commanded you,
12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, andthatyou may lack nothing.
The Comfort of Christ’s Coming
13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrowas otherswho have no hope.
14 Forif we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Himthose who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to youby the word of the Lord, thatwe who are aliveandremain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 Forthe Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and withthe trumpet of God.And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are aliveandremain shall be caught up together with themin the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thuswe shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.