In our study of 1 Thessalonians chapter four, we look at how we should live our lives knowing that the rapture is coming soon. This chapter gives us a great understanding of the concept of the rapture and what we can expect.
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Therefore, brothers, just as you learned from us how you had to live in order to please God, and just as you are living this way now, we ask you - indeed, united with the Lord Yeshua, we urge you - to keep doing so more and more.
Paul commends the people for living to please God and he urges them to do so more and more. He is encouraging them to grow to maturity in their faith as the more we grow in Christ the more we are able to please God.
For you know what instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Yeshua.
The instructions that Paul gave will be covered in chapter five and they are commonly called the commandments for believers. We must remember that this is not for salvation but because we are saved and want to please God.
What God wants is that you be holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to manage his sexual impulses in a holy and honorable manner, without giving in to lustful desires, like the pagans who don't know God.
We are called to be set apart for God's use (sanctified) and a part of that is being in control of our own bodies. In 1 Peter 1:2, we saw that this process of sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to control our bodies we can listen to the Spirit and God will help us to avoid the temptations of lust.
No one should wrong his brother in this matter or take advantage of him, because the Lord punishes all who do such things - as we have explained to you before at length. For God did not call us to live an unclean life but a holy one.
Sin is and will be punished even for those who believe in Jesus. This punishment does not affect salvation but is like a parent that disciplines their child. God called us to be pure and holy and so He corrects us and allows consequences for sin in order that we may grow.
Therefore, whoever rejects this teaching is rejecting not a man but God, indeed, the One who gives you the Ruach HaKodesh, which is his.
If we do not want to be holy, then we are not going against man but against the will of God. He has given us the power to be holy through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Concerning love for the brothers we do not need to write you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other; and you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do it even more.
God is love and only He can teach us to love each other. That understanding can only come when we accept Jesus Christ and the example of love that He gave us.
Also, make it your ambition to live quietly, to mind your own business and to earn your living by your own efforts - just as we told you. Then your daily life will gain the respect of outsiders, and you will not be dependent on anyone.
We all answer to God for our own words and actions so we do not need to get involved in arguments and strife. We are to work and be an example for those that do not know Jesus.
Now, brothers, we want you to know the truth about those who have died; otherwise, you might become sad the way other people
We have hope through Jesus Christ and that hope is that we will be with God forever. For those that die here on earth (fall asleep), it is better to go on to be with the Lord. If we know that someone who died had accepted Jesus Christ, then we have no reason to mourn like the people that do not have our hope.
do who have nothing to hope for. For since we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, we also believe that in the same way God, through Yeshua, will take with him those who have died.
Why do we not have to grieve? The answer is simply that, as Christians, we are raised with Christ just as He was. Death has no power of us because sin and death were nailed to the cross. We simply fall asleep and wake up with Jesus in the twinkling of an eye.
When we say this, we base it on the Lord's own word: we who remain alive when the Lord comes will certainly not take precedence over those who have died.
Paul describes the rapture of the church and reminds the readers of the fact that this is what Jesus said concerning the subject. The dead will be raised with Christ and those that are still here will then be caught up to join them in the air.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God's shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise;
Jesus is coming back when the Father gives the command. God has used a trumpet to call His people and to get them to move since the time of Moses and the wandering in the wilderness. He is going to do the same thing in the future as we see in Revelation 8.
then we who are left still alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord.
Paul now describes what we commonly call "the rapture of the church" We will be going up to join the dead which have risen first and Jesus. We have the hope and the promise that we will be with the Lord forever.
So encourage each other with these words.
Because of this confidence that we have and our knowledge about the coming Day of the Lord, we can be encouraged. Paul tells us to also strengthen others in the faith with this knowledge.
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