1 Thessalonians4
New International Version
1As for other matters, brothers and sisters, 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.
2For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;
4that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
5not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;
6and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.
7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
8Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
9Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
10And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,
11and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,
12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
13Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
14For 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.
15According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16For 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.
17After 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.
18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for 1 Thessalonians 4.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Exhortations to purity and holiness. (1–8). To brotherly love, peaceable behaviour, and diligence. (9–12). Not to sorrow unduly for the death of godly relations and friends, considering the glorious resurrection of their bodies at Christ's second coming. (13–18).
vv1-8
To abide in the faith of the gospel is not enough, we must abound in the work of faith. The rule according to which all ought to walk and act, is the commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctification, in the renewal of their souls under the influences of the Holy Spirit, and attention to appointed duties, constituted the will of God respecting them. In aspiring after this renewal of the soul unto holiness, strict restraint must be put upon the appetites and senses of the body, and on the thoughts and inclinations of the will, which lead to wrong uses of them. The Lord calls none into his family to live unholy lives, but that they may be taught and enabled to walk before him in holiness. Some make light of the precepts of holiness, because they hear them from men; but they are God's commands, and to break them is to despise God.
vv9-12
We should notice in others what is good, to their praise, that we may engage them to abound therein more and more. All who are savingly taught of God, are taught to love one another. The teaching of the Spirit exceeds the teachings of men; and men's teaching is vain and useless, unless God teach. Those remarkable for this or any other grace, need to increase therein, as well as to persevere to the end. It is very desirable to have a calm and quiet temper, and to be of a peaceable and quiet behaviour. Satan is busy to trouble us; and we have in our hearts what disposes us to be unquiet; therefore let us study to be quiet. Those who are busy-bodies, meddling in other men's matters, have little quiet in their own minds, and cause great disturbances among their neighbours. They seldom mind the other exhortation, to be diligent in their own calling, to work with their own hands. Christianity does not take us from the work and duty of our particular callings, but teaches us to be diligent therein. People often by slothfulness reduce themselves to great straits, and are liable to many wants; while such as are diligent in their own business, earn their own bread, and have great pleasure in so doing.
vv13-18
Here is comfort for the relations and friends of those who die in the Lord. Grief for the death of friends is lawful; we may weep for our own loss, though it may be their gain. Christianity does not forbid, and grace does not do away, our natural affections. Yet we must not be excessive in our sorrows; this is too much like those who have no hope of a better life. Death is an unknown thing, and we know little about the state after death; yet the doctrines of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ, are a remedy against the fear of death, and undue sorrow for the death of our Christian friends; and of these doctrines we have full assurance. It will be some happiness that all the saints shall meet, and remain together for ever; but the principal happiness of heaven is to be with the Lord, to see him, live with him, and enjoy him for ever. We should support one another in times sorrow; not deaden one another's spirits, or weaken one another's hands. And this may be done by the many lessons to be learned from the resurrection of the dead, and the second coming of Christ. What! comfort a man by telling him he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from those words? That man alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sins are blotted out, and the thoughts of whose heart are purified by the Holy Spirit, so that he can love God, and worthily magnify his name. We are not in a safe state unless it is thus with us, or we are desiring to be so.
Key Words
λοιπόν (loipón): something remaining (adverbially)
οὖν (oûn): (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordingly
ἀδελφός (adelphós): a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))
ἐρωτάω (erōtáō): to interrogate; by implication, to request
καί (kaí): and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in connection (or composition) with other particles or small words
παρακαλέω (parakaléō): to call near, i.e. invite, invoke (by imploration, hortation or consolation)
ὑμᾶς (hymâs): you (as the objective of a verb or preposition)
ἐν (en): "in," at, (up-)on, by, etc.
κύριος (kýrios): supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication, Master (as a respectful title)
Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs): Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites
Cross References
1 Thessalonians 4Paul's parallel instruction to work quietly and avoid idleness, echoing his custom.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Parallel description of the resurrection occurring in an instant at the last trumpet sound.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Exhortation to honorable marriage and sexual purity under divine judgment.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The husband-wife relationship framed around honor and the metaphor of the weaker vessel.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Rejecting apostolic instructions equals rejecting God who authorized the messengers.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Allusion to Isaiah's prophecy of believers being directly taught of God.
Supported by JFB
The mystery that those alive at Christ's coming will be changed, not sleep.
Supported by JFB
Parallel description of the Lord Jesus descending from heaven with mighty angels.
Supported by JFB
Jesus' promise to return and take His disciples to be forever with Him.
Supported by JFB
Ignorance of God among the Gentiles directly leads to moral blindness and unchastity.
Supported by JFB
The dishonoring of bodies when people are given up to their own lusts.
Supported by JFB
God is the ultimate avenger of wrongs committed against others.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Christ's command of mutual love as the defining mark of His disciples.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The tragic state of the pagan world: having no hope and without God.
Supported by JFB
The essential connection between Christ's resurrection and the resurrection of believers.
Supported by John Calvin
David refers to physical bodies or instruments as 'vessels' kept holy.
Supported by Matthew Poole