Common English Bible CEB
New Revised Standard NRS
1 So then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to keep living the way you already are and even do better in how you live and please God—just as you learned from us.
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Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more.
2 You know the instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
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For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 God's will is that your lives are dedicated to him. This means that you stay away from sexual immorality
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For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication;
4 and learn how to control your own body in a pure and respectable way.
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that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor,
5 Don't be controlled by your sexual urges like the Gentiles who don't know God.
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not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 No one should mistreat or take advantage of their brother or sister in this issue. The Lord punishes people for all these things, as we told you before and sternly warned you.
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that no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
7 God didn't call us to be immoral but to be dedicated to him.
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For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.
8 Therefore, whoever rejects these instructions isn't rejecting a human authority. They are rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
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Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.
9 You don't need us to write about loving your brothers and sisters because God has already taught you to love each other.
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Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another;
10 In fact, you are doing loving deeds for all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. Now we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do so even more.
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and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more,
11 Aim to live quietly, mind your own business, and earn your own living, just as I told you.
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to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you,
12 That way you'll behave appropriately toward outsiders, and you won't be in need.
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so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.
13 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about people who have died so that you won't mourn like others who don't have any hope.
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But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
14 Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus.
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For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.
15 What we are saying is a message from the Lord: we who are alive and still around at the Lord's coming definitely won't go ahead of those who have died.
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For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.
16 This is because the Lord himself will come down from heaven with the signal of a shout by the head angel and a blast on God's trumpet. First, those who are dead in Christ will rise.
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For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then, we who are living and still around will be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet with the Lord in the air. That way we will always be with the Lord.
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Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.
18 So encourage each other with these words.
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Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.