1 Thessalonians 4
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · AD 50 – AD 51 · The early church · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
18 verses · 409 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
Living to Please God
1Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more. 2For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3For it is Godʼs will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; 4each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you. 7For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. 8Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
9Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. 10And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more 11and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you. 12Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.
The Return of the Lord
13Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
15By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. 17After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Footnotes (3)
- a v4 Literally know how to possess his own vessel
- b v6 Or no one should ever harm or cheat his brother in this matter
- c v13 Literally those who have fallen asleep, as in verses 14 and 15
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Caught up to meet the Lord in the air
Paul tells the Thessalonians that the Lord will descend from heaven with a cry of command and a trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first, and the living will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Christians agree on the hope of Christ's return and the resurrection, but disagree about the timing and nature of this event relative to other end-time events.
When: 1 Thessalonians, c. AD 50–51.
Ways people read this (4)
- Pretribulation rapture: believers are taken before a seven-year tribulation (dispensational premillennialism).
- Posttribulation: the gathering happens at Christ's single visible return, after the tribulation, when believers meet the Lord and escort him to earth (historic premillennial).
- Single return: the gathering is part of the one return of Christ at the end of history, with the resurrection and judgment (amillennial and postmillennial).
- Midtribulation and prewrath: various positions in between.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.