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BOOK 52 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

1 Thessalonians 4

1 Thessalonians book home•Chapter 4 of 5•18 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

1 Thessalonians 4 Overview

Paul urges believers to abound in holy living, especially sexual purity, brotherly love, quiet work, and honorable conduct. He then comforts those grieving dead believers: the dead in Christ will rise first, living believers will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and all will ever be with the Lord.

1 ThessaloniansBook
4Chapter
18Verses
Pauline EpistlesDivision

Before you read 1 Thessalonians 4

Coming from

Unable to bear uncertainty about the persecuted church, Paul sends Timothy to establish and comfort them. Timothy returns with good news of their faith and love, which deeply encourages Paul. He prays to see them again, to increase their love, and to establish their hearts unblameable in holiness at Christ’s coming.

In this chapter

Paul urges believers to abound in holy living, especially sexual purity, brotherly love, quiet work, and honorable conduct. He then comforts those grieving dead believers: the dead in Christ will rise first, living believers will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and all will ever be with the Lord.

Leads into

Paul continues with the day of the Lord, warning that sudden destruction overtakes those saying peace and safety, while believers are children of light who should watch and be sober. God has not appointed them to wrath but to obtain salvation through Christ. The chapter ends with practical exhortations about leaders, patience, prayer, thanksgiving, testing, holiness, and God’s faithfulness.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The resurrection/gathering paragraph is given primarily as comfort for believers worried about deceased Christians.

The chapter describes the Lord’s descent, shout, archangel’s voice, trumpet of God, resurrection, and gathering; it should not be reduced to speculative date-setting.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Sanctification includes sexual holiness

God’s will includes abstaining from fornication.

Brotherly love should grow

They are already loving, yet Paul urges increase.

Christian hope changes grief

Believers sorrow, but not as those without hope.

Dead and living believers share the same future

Both are gathered together to the Lord.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

1 Corinthians 15:51–53

Paul also describes resurrection and transformation at the last trumpet.

John 14:1–3

Jesus promises to come again and receive His disciples.

2 Thessalonians 2:1–4

Paul later discusses ‘our gathering together unto him’ and preceding events.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use this passage to forbid normal grief

Believers sorrow, but with hope.

Do not separate the catching up from bodily resurrection

The dead in Christ rise first.

Do not turn the text into date-setting

Its stated purpose is comfort.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4 watching for…

Commands about sanctification before the prophecy section.

The phrase ‘dead in Christ.’

The sequence of descent, resurrection, and catching up.

The word ‘together.’

The command to comfort one another.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline3 sections
1-8Believers are urged to please God by walking in sanctification and abstaining from fornication9-12They are told to increase in brotherly love, live quietly, work with their hands, and walk honestly13-18Paul comforts believers about those who sleep in Jesus and describes the Lord’s descent and the catching up of believers
1

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

For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

3

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

4

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

5

Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

6

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

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

8

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

9

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 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

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

That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

13

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

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15

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

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

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

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.