The Call to Holy Living
Study note
Paul urges the Thessalonians to continue growing in conduct that pleases God, specifically addressing sexual morality. God's will for them is sanctification, which includes controlling their bodies in holiness and honor rather than being driven by lustful passions. Paul emphasizes that rejecting these instructions means rejecting God himself, who gives the Holy Spirit as the power for holy living. This teaching was especially vital in a Greco-Roman culture where sexual permissiveness was normalized.
1 One more thing, brothers and sisters. We taught you how to live in a way that makes God happy, and you are already doing it. Now we ask you and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to keep doing it more and more. Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
2 You already know the guidelines we gave you from the Lord Jesus. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
3 This is God's will for you: he wants you to be holy. That means staying away from sexual sin. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4 Each of you should learn to be in charge of your own body and treat it with respect and honor. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5 Do not let out-of-control desires run your life the way they do for people who do not know God. Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
6 Nobody should take advantage of a fellow believer or cheat them in this area. The Lord will punish anyone who does these things, and we already warned you about this. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
7 God did not call us to live dirty lives. He called us to live pure and holy lives. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 So if you ignore this teaching, you are not ignoring a person. You are ignoring God himself, the one who gives you his Holy Spirit. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
Brotherly Love and Quiet Industry
Study note
While commending their God-taught love for one another, Paul encourages them to grow in it even more. He also counsels a quiet, industrious lifestyle, minding one's own affairs and working with one's own hands. This instruction likely addressed some believers who, in their excitement about Christ's imminent return, had stopped working and become idle. Living responsibly would earn the respect of outsiders and prevent dependency.
9 When it comes to loving each other as brothers and sisters, I truly do not need to write to you about that. God himself has already taught you how to love one another. But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 And you are already showing that love to all the believers across Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to keep growing in it more and more. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
11 Do your best to live a calm and peaceful life. Take care of your own business, and work hard with your own hands, just like we told you to do. And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 Then people outside the church will respect how you live. You will not need to depend on anyone else for what you need. That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
The Hope of the Resurrection
Study note
This passage addresses the Thessalonians' most urgent concern: had believers who died missed out on Christ's return? Paul assures them with apostolic authority that the dead in Christ will not be disadvantaged. At the Lord's return, announced by a commanding shout, the archangel's voice, and God's trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first. Then living believers will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so all will be with the Lord forever. This is one of the most detailed descriptions of Christ's second coming in all of Scripture.
13 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know what happens to believers who have died. We do not want you to be sad like people who have no hope at all. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 We believe that Jesus died and came back to life. So we can be sure that God will bring back with Jesus all the believers who have died. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 We are telling you what the Lord himself said. Those of us still alive when the Lord comes back will not go ahead of those who have already died. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the chief angel, and with God's trumpet call. First, the believers who have died will rise up. For 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 After that, those of us who are still alive will be swept up into the clouds alongside them to meet the Lord in the sky. And from that moment on, we will be with the Lord forever. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 So use these words to bring comfort and hope to each other. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.