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.
Verse 1
Abound more and more; that is, follow the directions and exhortations which they had received more and more fully.
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;
Verse 4
His vessel, his body.
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.
Verse 7
Unto uncleanness; to sin or moral impurity of any kind.
8.
He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
Verse 8
Despiseth; that is, the preaching and instructions of Paul.--Given unto us his Holy Spirit; as proofs that our commission is from him.
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.
Verse 12
Honestly; reputably.--Them that are without; unbelievers.
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.
Verse 13
Them which are asleep; which are dead,--referring, perhaps, to some who had lost their lives in the persecutions.
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.
Verse 15
We which are alive and remain; those who shall be alive at the coming of Christ.--Prevent; precede; that is, go before them in entering into glory.
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.
Verse 17
In the clouds; in heaven. From the form of the expression used repeatedly in this passage, "We which are alive and remain," and from phraseology analogous to it, occurring in other places, it has been supposed by some that the time of Christ's final coming was one of the things not revealed even to the apostles, and that they shared with the church at large in the expectation that that event was to take place in their own day. Such an interpretation of his language, however, as this supposition implies, seems to be distinctly disavowed by the apostle in his Second Epistle to this church. (2 Thessalonians 2:2.)
18.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.