The Call to Sanctification

1Finally then, •brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us how you must •walk and please God — as you are doinga — do so even more. 2For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3For this is God’s will,b your •sanctification:c that you abstaind from sexual immorality, 4so that each of you knows how to control his own bodye in sanctification and honor, 5not with lustful desires,f like the Gentiles who don’t know God. 6This means one must not transgress against and defraudg his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses,h as we also previously told and warned you. 7For God has not called us to impurityi but to sanctification. 8Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit.j

Loving and Working

9About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by Godk to love one another.l 10In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers in the entire region of Macedonia.m But we encourage you, brothers, to do so even more, 11to seek to lead a quiet life,n to mind your own business,o and to workp with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12so that you may walk properlyq, r in the presence of outsiderss and not be dependent on anyone.t, u

The Comfort of Christ’s Coming

13We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are •asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.v 14Since we believe that Jesus died and rosew again,x in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep throughy Jesus.z 15For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord:aa, ab We who are still alive at the Lord’s comingac will certainly have no advantage overad those who have fallen asleep.ae 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,af, ag with the archangel’sah voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christai will rise first. 17Thenaj we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the cloudsak to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourageal one another with these words.