1 Thessalonians 4
New
International Version - UK (NIVUK)
Living
to please God
4
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in
order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in
the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we
gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual
immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a
way that is holy and honourable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who
do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take
advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit
such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to
be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this
instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you
his Holy Spirit.
9
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you
yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do
love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and
sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a
quiet life: you should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as
we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so
that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Believers
who have died
13
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep
in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God
will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the
Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the
coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the
voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ
will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so
we will be with the Lord for ever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with
these words.
Footnotes:
1
Thessalonians 4:4 Or learn to live with your own wife; or learn to acquire a
wife
1
Thessalonians 4:6 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here
to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family.
The
Bible Panorama
1
Thessalonians 4
V
1–2: INCREASE AND INSTRUCTION Their spiritual lives should increase continually
and abundantly. They should remember Christ’s commandments received through
Paul and his Christian colleagues.
V 3–8: SANCTIFICATION AND SEX God’s will is to
have a holy people in contrast to the unregenerate Gentiles. This means that
sexual immorality has no place whatsoever in the life of any believer. Adultery
and lustful passion is out. To reject this clean and holy teaching is to reject
God and His Holy Spirit.
V
9–12: LOVE AND LIVING Heavenly love towards each other must predominate. As it
increases, it will produce a quiet, industrious, ordered life. This will ensure
that they have a good testimony to those outside and that their needs are met
by their daily work.
V 13–18: COMFORT AND COMING Some suggested to
the Thessalonians that Christians who had died had missed the blessing of
Christ’s second coming. Paul teaches them that, when Christ comes, those who
have died physically will be raised with a resurrection body first and be
reunited with Christ in the air. Christ will bring their redeemed souls with
Him, so there will also be another reunion—that of the body and soul of the
believer. Then those who are alive physically will join that blessed reunion
with their returned Lord of glory. This is, of course, a great comfort. The
Christian who has died and the Christian who is alive both have their future
gloriously secured in Jesus Christ. Those who died trusting Christ only fell
‘asleep’ in death, and awoke immediately in His eternal presence. Now they will
be given a resurrection body also when Christ brings them back with Him.
The
Bible Panorama. Copyright © 2005 Day One Publications.
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