1Th 4 | ISV | STEP | Instructions on the Way Christians Should Live Now then, brothers, you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, as in fact you are doing. We ask and encourage you in the Lord to do so even more.

1 Thessalonians 4

1 Instructions on the Way Christians Should LiveNow then, brothers, you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, as in fact you are doing. We ask and encourage you in the Lord to do so even more.Phil 1:27; Col 1:10; 2:6; 1Thes 2:12 2 You know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For it is God's will that you be sanctified: You must abstain from sexual immorality;Rom 12:2; 1Cor 6:15, 18; Eph 5:3, 17, 27; Col 3:5 4 each of you must know how to control his own body ^{▼▼Lit. vessel} in holiness and honor,Rom 6:19; 1Cor 6:15, 18 5 not with passion and lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;Rom 1:24, 26; 1Cor 15:34; Gal 4:8; Eph 2:12; 4:17-18; Col 3:5; 2Thes 1:8 6 and you must never take advantage of or exploit a brother in this regard. For the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we already told you and warned you.Lev 19:11, 13; 1Cor 6:8; 2Thes 1:8 7 For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.Lev 11:44; 19:2; 1Cor 1:2; Heb 12:14; 1Pet 1:14-15 8 Therefore, whoever rejects this instruction ^{▼▼The Gk. lacks instruction} is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.Luke 10:16; 1Cor 2:10; 7:40; 1John 3:24

9 Now you do not need anyone to write to you about brotherly love, since you have been taught by God to love each other.Jer 31:34; Matt 22:39; John 6:45; 13:34; 14:26; 15:12; Eph 5:2; 1Thes 5:1; Heb 8:11; 1Pet 4:8; 1John 2:20, 27; 4:21 10 In fact, you are showing love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this even more.1Thes 1:7; 3:12 11 Also, make it your goal to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you,Acts 20:35; Eph 4:28; 2Thes 3:7-8, 11-12; 1Pet 4:15 12 so that you may win the respect of outsiders, and have need of nothing.Rom 13:13; 2Cor 8:21; Col 4:5; 1Pet 2:12

13 Comfort about Christians Who Have DiedBut we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve like other people who have no hope.Lev 19:28; Deut 14:2; 2Sam 12:20; Eph 2:12 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so it is through Jesus that God will bring back with him those who have died.1Cor 15:13, 18, 23; 1Thes 3:13 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have died.1Kings 13:17-18; 20:35; 1Cor 15:51 16 With a shout of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of God's trumpet, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.Matt 24:30-31; Acts 1:11; 1Cor 15:23, 52; 2Thes 1:7 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.John 12:26; 14:3; 17:24; Acts 1:9; 1Cor 15:51; Rev 11:12 18 So then, encourage one another with these words.1Thes 5:11