For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It is God's will that you should be sanctified
that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;
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.
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.
Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.
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,
so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
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.
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.
Fallen asleep in him? Is this referring to death or to quenching the holy spirit? Possibly both. I have already read further in this, so it seems logic to assume that Paul was talking about death, but at the same time, since that is in a different verse, he could mean that if we are asleep in him (we have quenched the holy spirit, which means that we are not listening to God.) So, if we are asleep in him, then we might be out of Gods will. So back to the scripture (you'll see what I mean by he could be talking about death.)
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.
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.
I know that now you are wondering why I put the previous text in because now it's obvious that Paul was talking about dead people. Well, that is because while it may be true that Paul is talking about the end days, other books in the bible talk about being dead to the spirit, but alive in Christ.
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.
Therefore encourage each other with these words.
I know I'm stating the obvious, but Paul is always mentioning that the Thessalonians should encourage each other. And so we should encourage each other "encourage each other"
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