| NET Bible | New International Version |
| 1Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God (as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more. | 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 commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. | 2For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. |
| 3For this is God's will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, | 3It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; |
| 4that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, | 4that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, |
| 5not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. | 5not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; |
| 6In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly. | 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 impurity but in holiness. | 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. |
| 8Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. | 8Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. |
| 9Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. | 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 indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, | 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, |
| 11to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you. | 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, |
| 12In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need. | 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. |
| 13Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. | 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 if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. | 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. |
| 15For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. | 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 shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. | 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. |
| 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. | 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. | 18Therefore encourage one another with these words. |
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