1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 (NRSV)
A life pleasing God to the end
Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask
and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to
live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and
more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For
this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication;
that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor,
not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one
wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an
avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and
solemnly warned you. For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.
Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also
gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Now concerning love of the brothers and
sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have
been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers
and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and
more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your
hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and
be dependent on no one.
But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we
declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left
until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For
the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the
sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will
rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
If you have questions about how to become a friend and follower of Jesus, please
see the devotion entitled, “Come to Jesus” @ http://bit.ly/JVhaLta
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