1Furthermore 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 abound more and more . 2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus . 3For this is the will of God , even your sanctification , that ye should abstain from fornication : 4That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour ; 5Not in the lust of concupiscence , even as the Gentiles which know not God : 6That 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 . 7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness , but unto holiness . 8He therefore that despiseth , despiseth not man , but God , who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit .
The Call to Love One Another
9But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you : for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another . 10And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia : but we beseech you , brethren , that ye increase more and more ; 11And that ye study to be quiet , and to do your own business , and to work with your own hands , as we commanded you ; 12That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without , and that ye may have lack of nothing .
The Hope of the Resurrection
13But 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 . 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again , even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him . 15For 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 . 16For 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 : 17Then 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 . 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words .