Plea for Purity

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.

Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

A Brotherly and Orderly Life

But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

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;

The Comfort of Christ’s Coming

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

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 by no means precede those who are asleep.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The Day of the Lord

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

Do not quench the Spirit.