The Call to Sanctification
1 Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing —do this even more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is God’s will, e your sanctification: f that you keep away g from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not with lustful passions, h like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. 6 This means one must not transgress against and take advantage i of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. 7 For God has not called us to impurity j but to live in holiness. 8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. k
Loving and Working
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God l to love one another. m 10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. n But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, o to mind your own business, and to work p with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may behave properly q in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone. ,r
The Comfort of Christ’s Coming
13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. s 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose t again, u in the same way, through Jesus, v God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: w We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming x will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. y 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, ,z with the archangel’s a voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ b will rise first. 17 Then c we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds d to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
4:1–2. The first verses of the section on living to please God (4:1–2) serve as an introduction to both the teaching on sexual ethics (4:3–8) and the rest of the moral teaching of the letter. The verb “ask” (4:1) is not simply a request but, in moral contexts, should be understood as “demand” (Php 4:3; 1 Th 5:12; 2 Th 2:1; 2 Jn 5). The verb “exhort” is also found in moral contexts, at times with the first verb (1 Th 5:12, 14). The exhortation is that the Thessalonians “do this even more” (see 3:12 and 4:10)—that is, excel and be outstanding to an ever greater degree in that which they have learned and are doing.
4:3. In 4:3–8, the apostles address the problem of sexual immorality. Evidently some church members who received the teaching regarding their sexuality (4:1–2, 6) have rejected it (4:8). They responded to their passions as those who were unconverted (4:5), so the apostles remind them that sanctification, here understood as sexual purity, is the will of God (4:3–4, 7–8) and that God will judge those who hand themselves over to such passions (4:6). Not a few religions celebrated in Thessalonica promoted sexual immorality. It would therefore have been difficult for new converts to resist what the social norms of their day permitted.
4:6–8. The focus of this section is on adultery. In this act, the person “take[s] advantage” of another believer (4:6), the verb suggesting a form of exploitation (in other contexts it refers to political, economic, and military as well as sexual exploitation). Such acts are not casually dismissed.
4:9. Paul next appears to answer a series of questions put to him by the Thessalonians about fraternal love (4:9–12), the destiny of the dead in Christ (4:13–18), and the time of the day of the Lord (5:1–11). Paul recognizes that they have already been taught by God to love one another (4:9), through God’s example in sending Christ (Jn 3:16; Rm 5:8; Eph 5:1–2), through the Holy Spirit (Gl 5:22; Rm 5:5), and through Jesus’s teaching (Jn 13:34–35; 15:12, 17), which the apostles echoed in their instruction (Rm 12:10; Gl 6:2; 1 Pt 1:22).
4:10–12. Paul touches on the issue of being benefactors for others (4:10), and he then fixes his attention on those members of the church who are receiving aid from their patrons, whether inside or outside the church. This passage, like 2 Th 3:6–15, demonstrates that the apostles were opposed to the social and economic dependency that characterized the client-patron relationships, likely due to its social entailments. High-status patrons would have multiple clients who expected food, money, and public representation to protect their rights, while they reciprocated by giving patrons honor by supporting their causes. The exhortation to work with their hands (4:11) not only indicates that the members of the church were of the artisan class but also suggests that some Thessalonians were clients of prominent patrons. Paul calls them to labor, following his example (4:12; cf. 2:9; 2 Th 3:7–8).
4:13–14. In this section (4:13–18) the apostles respond to the inquiry of the Thessalonian believers about the destiny of believers who had died before the Lord’s advent. At times “sleep” describes death in the light of the anticipated resurrection (4:13; cf. Dn 12:2; 1 Co 15:20). This discussion implies that between the time Paul left and Timothy’s visit some members of the church had passed away.
4:15–17. The “word from the Lord” (4:15) does not here refer to a prophetic oracle (as Is 1:10) but refers either to the message of the gospel (1 Th 1:8; 2 Th 3:1) or, more likely, to a teaching that came from the Lord Jesus (Ac 20:35; see Mt 24:29–31, 40–41). Paul’s argument is simply that the dead in Christ will rise first and then the living and the resurrected dead will be taken up together to meet the Lord (4:17). The “Lord’s coming” is his parousia (see the commentary on 2:19).
4:18. This embedded letter of consolation concludes with instructions to “encourage one another.” This teaching was not just for the leadership but was to be used in the ministry each of the members exercised toward others (4:9; 5:11, 14–15).