1 Thessalonians 4

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Final y, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus; we instructed you how to live in theway that pleases God, and you are so living; but make more progress stil .	1 Finally, brothers, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God--and as you are conducting yourselves--you do so even more.
2 You are well aware of the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.	2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 God wil s you al to be holy. He wants you to keep away from sexual immorality,	3 This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality,
4 and each one of you to know how to control his body in a way that is holy and honourable,	4 that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor,
5 not giving way to selfish lust like the nations who do not acknowledge God.	5 not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 He wants nobody at al ever to sin by taking advantage of a brother in these matters; the Lord alwayspays back sins of that sort, as we told you before emphatical y.	6 not to take advantage of or exploit a brother in this matter, for the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly affirmed.
7 God cal ed us to be holy, not to be immoral;	7 For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.
8 in other words, anyone who rejects this is rejecting not human authority, but God, who gives you hisHoly Spirit.	8 Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not a human being but God, who (also) gives his holy Spirit to you.
9 As for brotherly love, there is no need to write to you about that, since you have yourselves learnt fromGod to love one another,	9 On the subject of mutual charity you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
10 and in fact this is how you treat al the brothers throughout the whole of Macedonia. However, we dourge you, brothers, to go on making even greater progress	10 Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Nevertheless we urge you, brothers, to progress even more,
11 and to make a point of living quietly, attending to your own business and earning your living, just as wetold you to,	11 and to aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your (own) hands, as we instructed you,
12 so that you may earn the respect of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.	12 that you may conduct yourselves properly toward outsiders and not depend on anyone.
13 We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, to make sure that youdo not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope.	13 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that in the same way God wil bring with him thosewho have fallen asleep in Jesus.	14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
15 We can tell you this from the Lord's own teaching, that we who are stil alive for the Lord's coming willnot have any advantage over those who have fallen asleep.	15 Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 At the signal given by the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, the Lord himself wil comedown from heaven; those who have died in Christ wil be the first to rise,	16 For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 and only after that shall we who remain alive be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meetthe Lord in the air. This is the way we shall be with the Lord for ever.	17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18 With such thoughts as these, then, you should encourage one another.	18 Therefore, console one another with these words.