1
BSB
Finally, 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.
2
BSB
For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3
BSB
For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
4
BSB
each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
5
BSB
not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6
BSB
and 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.
7
BSB
For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
8
BSB
Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
9
BSB
Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
10
BSB
And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more
11
BSB
and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.
12
BSB
Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.
13
BSB
Brothers, 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.
14
BSB
For 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.
15
BSB
By 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.
16
BSB
For 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.
17
BSB
After 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.
18
BSB
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
BSB: Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Dedicated to the public domain by the rights holder.