| 1 | Furthermore then we beseech you , brethren , and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus , that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God , [so] ye would abound more and more . |
| 2 | For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus . |
| 3 | For this is the will of God , [even] your sanctification , that ye should abstain from fornication : |
| 4 | That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour ; |
| 5 | Not in the lust of concupiscence , even as the Gentiles which know not God : |
| 6 | That no [man] go beyond and defraud his brother in [any] matter : because that the Lord [is] the avenger of all such , as we also have forewarned you and testified . |
| 7 | For God hath not called us unto uncleanness , but unto holiness . |
| 8 | He therefore that despiseth , despiseth not man , but God , who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit . |
| 9 | But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you : for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another . |
| 10 | And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia : but we beseech you , brethren , that ye increase more and more ; |
| 11 | And that ye study to be quiet , and to do your own business , and to work with your own hands , as we commanded you ; |
| 12 | That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without , and [that] ye may have lack of nothing . |
| 13 | But I would not have you to be ignorant , brethren , concerning them which are asleep , that ye sorrow not , even as others which have no hope . |
| 14 | For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again , even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him . |
| 15 | For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord , that we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep . |
| 16 | For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout , with the voice of the archangel , and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : |
| 17 | Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds , to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord . |
| 18 | Wherefore comfort one another with these words . |
