FINALLY, brethren, we beseech you therefore, and conjure you by the
Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk, and
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 you should abstain from whoredom;
(4)that every one of you may know how to possess his own vessel in
sanctification and honour, (5)not in the vile passion of lewdness, as
the Gentiles which know not God; (6)that no man transgress against, or
act dishonestly to his brother in this matter because the Lord is the
avenger of all such things, as we have told you before, and testified.
(7)For God hath not called us unto impurity, but unto holiness.
(8)Therefore he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath
also given unto us his Holy Spirit.
(9)Now concerning brotherly love, I have no need to write unto you: for
ye yourselves are divinely taught to love one another. (10)And indeed
ye practise it towards all the brethren that are throughout Macedonia:
but we conjure you, brethren, to abound more and more; (11)and that you
make it your study to live peaceably, and to do your own business, and
to work with your own hands, even as we have enjoined you; (12)that ye
walk becomingly towards those without, and need no assistance from any
person.
(13)Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who
are fallen asleep, that ye be not afflicted, as the rest _of mankind_
who have no hope. (14)For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose
again, so also those that have fallen asleep for Jesus shall God bring
with him. (15)For this I say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we
who are alive, who are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall not
prevent those who are fallen asleep. (16)For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
(17)then we who are alive, who remain, shall be caught up together with
them into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be
ever with the Lord. (18)Wherefore comfort one another with these words.