Common English Bible CEB
Revised Standard Version RSV
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, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you 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 unchastity;
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 take a wife for himself 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 in the passion of lust like heathen 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 man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you.
7 God didn't call us to be immoral but to be dedicated to him.
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For God has not called us for uncleanness, 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 disregards this, disregards not man but God, who 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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But concerning love of the brethren you have no need to have any one 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 brethren throughout Macedo'nia. But we exhort you, brethren, 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 charged 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 command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody.
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 would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, 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 fallen asleep.
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, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
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 will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. 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, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.
18 So encourage each other with these words.
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Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.