1Thess.4.1

One final word, friends. We ask you--urge is more like it--that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance.

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Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.

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Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;

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Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You are doing this already, and we encourage you to do so more and more.

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You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus.

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For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

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for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

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For you remember what we taught you in the name of the Lord Jesus.

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God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.

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It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;

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For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

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God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.

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Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body,

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that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,

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that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

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Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor--

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not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.

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not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;

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not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

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not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and his ways.

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Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them. We've warned you about this before.

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and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.

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that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.

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Never cheat a Christian brother in this matter by taking his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before.

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God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful--as beautiful on the inside as the outside.

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For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

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For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

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God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives.

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If you disregard this advice, you're not offending your neighbors; you're rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.

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Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

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Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

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Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

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Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don't need me to tell you what to do. You're God-taught in these matters. Just love one another!

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Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

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But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

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But I don't need to write to you about the Christian love that should be shown among God's people. For God himself has taught you to love one another.

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You're already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.

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And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.

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and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;

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Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christians in all of Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we beg you to love them more and more.

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Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You've heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts.

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Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,

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that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

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This should be your ambition: to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we commanded you before.

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We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

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so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

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that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

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As a result, people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others to meet your financial needs.

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And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don't want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word.

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Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.

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But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

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And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope.

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Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.

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We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

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For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died.

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And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence--we have the Master's word on it--that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they'll be ahead of us.

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According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

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For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

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I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves.

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The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God's trumpet blast! He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise--they'll go first.

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For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

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For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

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For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves.

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Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master.

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After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

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Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

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Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.

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Oh, we'll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.

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Therefore encourage each other with these words.

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Therefore comfort one another with these words.

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So comfort and encourage each other with these words.