1 A s to the rest, then, brethren, we request you, and call upon you in the Lord Jesus, as ye did receive from us how it behoveth you to walk and to please God, that ye may abound the more,

Christian brothers, we ask you, because of the Lord Jesus, to keep on living in a way that will please God. I have already told you how to grow in the Christian life.

2 f or ye have known what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus,

The Lord Jesus gave us the right and the power to tell you what to do.

3 f or this is the will of God -- your sanctification; that ye abstain from the whoredom,

God wants you to be holy. You must keep away from sex sins.

4 t hat each of you know his own vessel to possess in sanctification and honour,

God wants each of you to use his body in the right way by keeping it holy and by respecting it.

5 n ot in the affection of desire, as also the nations that were not knowing God,

You should not use it to please your own desires like the people who do not know God.

6 t hat no one go beyond and defraud in the matter his brother, because an avenger the Lord of all these, as also we spake before to you and testified,

No man should do wrong to his Christian brother in anything. The Lord will punish a person who does. I have told you this before.

7 f or God did not call us on uncleanness, but in sanctification;

For God has not called us to live in sin. He has called us to live a holy life.

8 h e, therefore, who is despising -- doth not despise man, but God, who also did give His Holy Spirit to us.

The one who turns away from this teaching does not turn away from man, but from God. It is God Who has given us His Holy Spirit.

9 A nd concerning the brotherly love, ye have no need of writing to you, for ye yourselves are God-taught to love one another,

You do not need anyone to write to you about loving your Christian brothers. God has taught you to love each other.

10 f or ye do it also to all the brethren who in all Macedonia; and we call upon you, brethren, to abound still more,

You love all the Christians in all the country of Macedonia. But we ask you to love them even more.

11 a nd to study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we did command you,

Do your best to live a quiet life. Learn to do your own work well. We told you about this before.

12 t hat ye may walk becomingly unto those without, and may have lack of nothing.

By doing this, you will be respected by those who are not Christians. Then you will not be in need and others will not have to help you. The Lord Is Coming Again

13 A nd I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not sorrow, as also the rest who have not hope,

Christian brothers, we want you to know for sure about those who have died. You have no reason to have sorrow as those who have no hope.

14 f or if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God those asleep through Jesus he will bring with him,

We believe that Jesus died and then came to life again. Because we believe this, we know that God will bring to life again all those who belong to Jesus.

15 f or this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living -- who do remain over to the presence of the Lord -- may not precede those asleep,

We tell you this as it came from the Lord. Those of us who are alive when the Lord comes again will not go ahead of those who have died.

16 b ecause the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first,

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud call. The head angel will speak with a loud voice. God’s horn will give its sounds. First, those who belong to Christ will come out of their graves to meet the Lord.

17 t hen we who are living, who are remaining over, together with them shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in air, and so always with the Lord we shall be;

Then, those of us who are still living here on earth will be gathered together with them in the clouds. We will meet the Lord in the sky and be with Him forever.

18 s o, then, comfort ye one another in these words.

Because of this, comfort each other with these words.