1 F inally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, --that ye abound more and more.

2 F or ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3 F or this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication;

4 t hat each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

5 n ot in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God;

6 t hat no man transgress, and wrong his brother in the matter: because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

7 F or God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

8 T herefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you.

9 B ut concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another;

10 f or indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more;

11 a nd that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you;

12 t hat ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing.

13 B ut we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope.

14 F or if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 F or this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.

16 F or 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 t hen we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18 W herefore comfort one another with these words.