Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

A Life That Pleases God

4 Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more. ² For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³ God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual immorality. ⁴ Each of you should know how to live with your wife^[a] in a holy and honorable way, ⁵ not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know God. ⁶ In this matter, then, none of you should do wrong to other Christians or take advantage of them. We have told you this before, and we strongly warned you that the Lord will punish those who do that. ⁷ God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness. ⁸ So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting a human being, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

⁹ There is no need to write you about love for each other. You yourselves have been taught by God how you should love one another. ¹⁰ And you have, in fact, behaved like this toward all the believers in all of Macedonia. So we beg you, our friends, to do even more. ¹¹ Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to earn your own living, just as we told you before. ¹² In this way you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not have to depend on anyone for what you need.

The Lord's Coming

¹³ Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope. ¹⁴ We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

^15 (A)What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died. ^16 (B)There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; ¹⁷ then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ So then, encourage one another with these words.

Be Ready for the Lord's Coming

5 There is no need to write you, friends, about the times and occasions when these things will happen. ^2 (C)For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night. ³ When people say, “Everything is quiet and safe,” then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labor, and people will not escape. ⁴ But you, friends, are not in the darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief. ⁵ All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober. ⁷ It is at night when people sleep; it is at night when they get drunk. ^8 (D)But we belong to the day, and we should be sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹ God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. ¹¹ And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

Final Instructions and Greetings

¹² We beg you, our friends, to pay proper respect to those who work among you, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life. ¹³ Treat them with the greatest respect and love because of the work they do. Be at peace among yourselves.

¹⁴ We urge you, our friends, to warn the idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ See that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but at all times make it your aim to do good to one another and to all people.

¹⁶ Be joyful always, ¹⁷ pray at all times, ¹⁸ be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not restrain the Holy Spirit; ²⁰ do not despise inspired messages. ²¹ Put all things to the test: keep what is good ²² and avoid every kind of evil.

²³ May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you will do it, because he is faithful.

²⁵ Pray also for us, friends.

²⁶ Greet all the believers with the kiss of peace.

²⁷ I urge you by the authority of the Lord to read this letter to all the believers.

²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.