1 4:1FINALLY, therefore, brothers, we beseech and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, as you have received from us how you ought to walk and please God, that you abound still more. 4:2For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 4:3For this is the will of God, your purity, that you should abstain from fornication, 4:4that each one should know how to have his wife in purity and honor, 4:5not with inordinate desires like the gentiles who know not God, 4:6that he should not go beyond and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is a punisher of all these, as we also told you before and fully testified. 4:7For God has not called us to impurity, but to purity. 4:8He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who also gives us his Holy Spirit.
2 4:9But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you; for you are taught by God to love one another; 4:10for you also do the same to all the brothers in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, to abound still more, 4:11and strive to be quiet and pursue your own business, and work with your hands, as we charged you, 4:12that you may walk becomingly towards those without and have need of nothing.
3 4:13And we wish you not to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those that have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. 4:14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also will God bring with him those that have fallen asleep on account of Jesus. 4:15For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who live and remain till the coming of the Lord, shall not anticipate those that have fallen asleep, 4:16for 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 shall rise first, 4:17then we the living who remain shall be caught up together with them in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall be always with the Lord. 4:18Comfort one another, therefore, with these words.
4 5:1But concerning the times and season, brothers, you have no need that I should write to you; 5:2for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 5:3When they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes, like pain upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. 5:4But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day should come upon you like a thief; 5:5for you are all children of light, and children of day; we are not of night nor of darkness.
5 5:6Therefore let us not sleep as others, but let us watch and be sober. 5:7For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that are drunk drink in the night; 5:8but let us who are of day be sober, putting on a cuirass of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation, 5:9for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:10who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we may live together with him. 5:11Wherefore exhort one another, and edify one another, as you also do.
6 5:12And we beseech you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you, 5:13and to esteem them very highly in love on account of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 5:14And we exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, comfort the dispirited, assist the sick, be of long suffering towards all men. 5:15See that no one renders evil for evil, but always pursue the good both one to another and to all.
7 5:16Rejoice always; 5:17pray without ceasing, 5:18give thanks on every occasion; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to us. 5:19Quench not the Spirit, 5:20despise not prophecies. 5:21Prove all things, hold fast the good; 5:22abstain from every form of evil. 5:23And may the God of peace himself purify you wholly, and your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 5:24Faithful is he that calls you, who will also perform.
8 5:25Brothers, pray for us. 5:26Salute all the brothers with a holy kiss. 5:27I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brothers. 5:28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.