Living to Please God

1Furthermore we besech you brethren, & exhorte you by the Lorde Iesus, that ye encrease more and more, as ye haue receaued of vs, how ye ought to walke and to please God. 2For ye knowe what commaundementes we gaue you by the Lorde Iesus. 3For this is the wyll of God, your holynesse, that ye should abstayne from fornication: 4That euery one of you should knowe how to possesse his vessell in holynesse and honour: 5Not in the lust of concupiscence, euen as the gentiles, which knowe not God. 6That no man oppresse and defraude his brother in any matter, because that the Lorde is the auenger of all suche: as we also haue forewarned you, and testified. 7For God hath not called vs vnto vncleanenesse, but into holynesse. 8He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath geuen to you his holy spirite.

9But as touchyng brotherly loue, ye nede not that I write vnto you: For ye are taught of God to loue one another. 10Yea and that thyng veryly ye do vnto all ye brethren which are in al Macedonia: But we beseche you brethren, that ye encrease more and more: 11And that ye studie to be quiet, and to do your owne busynesse and to worke with your owne handes as we commaunded you: 12That ye may walke honestly toward them that are without, & that nothyng be lackyng in you.

The Return of the Lord

13But I woulde not haue you to be ignoraunt brethren, concernyng them which sleepe, that ye sorowe not euen as other, which haue no hope. 14For yf we beleue that Iesus dyed and rose agayne: euen so them also whiche sleepe by Iesus, wyll God bryng with hym. 15For this say we vnto you in the worde of the Lorde, that we whiche lyue, remayning vnto the comyng of the Lord, shall not preuent them which sleepe. 16For the Lorde hym selfe shal descende from heauen in a shoute, and in the voyce of the Archangell, and in the trumpe of God: And the dead in Christ shall aryse first. 17Than we which lyue, which remaine, shalbe caught vp together with them in the cloudes, to meete the Lorde in the ayre: And so shall we euer be with the Lorde. 18Wherfore comfort your selues one another in these wordes.