First Thessalonians 4:1-18

I Thessalonians 4:1 and 2:

^4:1Therefore as-to-the-rest, brothers, we ask you and we encourage in (the) Lord Jesus, according as you received from us how it is necessary (for) you to walk and to please God, according as also you walk, in order that you may rather exceed, ^.2for you knew² what charges we gave to you by means of the Lord Jesus,

Following on from what has already been written in this letter, Paul again addresses the Thessalonian holy-people (sanctified-people, Christians, saints, children of God) as "brothers" reminding them that they have all received the same holy spirit from God by means of the Lord Jesus Christ and so they, including Paul and every other holy-person, are all children of God and brothers of one another.

He writes: therefore, as far as the rest (the remaining-matters relative-to God and the things of God) are concerned, brothers, we (myself and Silvanus and Timothy) ask you with familiarity and we encourage (exhort, we call you beside us as a concerned father or mother would call their children close to them under their arms so as to help them to do that which is right) in the Lord Jesus (we ask and we encourage within the sphere of action of the Master Jesus - not within our intellectual or physical abilities, not within our philosophies or theories, not in something we heard on the television or radio, not in the newspaper or on the web - but in the Lord Jesus):

…according as you received from us (took from myself and those with me to beside or alongside yourselves) the manner in which it is necessary for you (how you ought, must, it is binding for you)…

to walk (literally: to move the feet around, go on foot; figuratively: to walk around during the everyday living of your lives, to behave or conduct yourselves) and
to please God (to be agreeable, acceptable and gratifying to God),
according as also you presently walk,
for the purpose and result that you would rather exceed (more-so, more and more, constantly-increasing, very much more abound, be over and above the number or measure already attained by you)….

Paul didn't say that they had reached the peak performance level and so they could "take it easy" or "quit"! The Thessalonian holy-people were already behaving and pleasing God, but they were encouraged to rather exceed in these things: …for you knew and still know (perceive, see) what charges (messages passed on from one to another) we gave to you by means of (through) the Lord Jesus.

It is interesting to note that in this short section, the "Lord Jesus" is written twice and therefore emphasis is being placed on the Lord Jesus so that all who read will really take notice that Jesus is their Lord/Master, not Paul nor anyone else.

[Reference: II Thessalonians 3:4.]

Verses 3-8:

^.3for this is (the) intention of God: your holiness – you to refrain-yourselves away-from fornication, ^.4each of you to know to acquire the vessel of himself in holiness and honor, ^.5not in passion of intense-yearning fully-as also the Gentiles, the (Gentiles) not having known² God,^.6not to go-above and to covetously-claim-more-than his brother in the matter, for-this-reason-that (the) Lord (is the) avenger concerning all these-things according as also we said-beforehand to you and we throughly-witnessed, ^.7for God did not call us on uncleanness but in holiness, ^.8for-therefore the (person) rejecting does not reject man but God, the (One) giving His spirit, the holy (spirit), into you.

In truth, this is the intention of God (God's will, His active volition and desire): your holiness….

The Greek word which is translated as "holiness" may also be translated as "sanctification" and comes from the word hagios which means to be separated from that-which is common ("common" being the word sometimes used to denote that-which is not set-apart for God, and so is ceremonially-unlawful, unclean, or defiled). Those who are holy are separated for God having come into the state of corresponding to the essence of God Who is Holy/Holiness/Sanctity.

The Thessalonian Christians were already holy in the spirit category because they had previously received holy spirit-life, but here Paul lets them know that God's will for them in the walk/behavior category is their holiness during the everyday living of their lives awaiting Christ's coming to be present. He continues by detailing how to live in holiness:

you to refrain-yourselves away-from fornication (hold yourselves back or abstain away from wrong sexual relations/activities, which is done by some people in their worship and service to their idols or 'gods'),
each of you to know to acquire the vessel of himself (each one of you to perceive or see to get for yourself, obtain, procure his own vessel or utensil; 'vessel' is used figuratively referring to the body of flesh being the temporary housing – see II Corinthians 4:7) in or within…:
- holiness (sanctification – as verse 3) and
- honor (estimation of value or price, deemed to have worth, holding-worth),…

…not in passion of intense-yearning (not within pathos, emotional experience, suffering, affection consisting-of strong-desire fixed or attached upon certain objects, and in this context it refers to those things other-than God and the things of God, lust) fully-as also/even the Gentiles (people of nations other-than Israel/Judah, other ethnic groups), here emphatically referring to the Gentiles who have not known and who continue not knowing (perceiving) the only true God….

The Thessalonian holy-people were not to use or misuse themselves the same way as those Gentiles who did not have holy spirit-life within them, because those Gentiles continued to refuse to believe what God has given mankind to believe regarding Himself and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those unsaved Gentiles only had their physical bodies and their soul/breath-life; they did not have holy spirit-life and therefore were not children of God.

For this is the intention of God: your holiness – you to refrain-yourselves away-from fornication, each of you to know to acquire the vessel of himself in holiness and honor, not in passion of intense-yearning fully-as also the Gentiles, emphatically the Gentiles not having known and continuing not knowing God…

not to go-above (not to overstep, go too far or beyond what is right, and therefore contrary to God's intention) and
not to covetously-claim more-than his brother in the matter (not to take advantage of one of yourselves who also has holy spirit within him and so is your brother spiritually, whereby you get more of something than you are rightfully due in the form of some so-called 'gain' for yourself, whereby you attain covetousness in the walk/behavior category during the business, deed, action of whatever circumstance you are in at that time)….

Why not? On this account that the Lord is the avenger (the one who executes righteous judgment and maintains what is right/just) concerning all these-things which are against God's intention (against His will) according as also we said-beforehand to you (foretold, definitely communicated with words, spoke in advance of it occurring) and we throughly-witnessed (we bore complete witness to you). A 'witness' is someone who has information or knowledge of that-which he is attesting to, and can therefore confirm it on the strength of his-own authority – here the word is "throughly-witnessed": they fully affirmed, testified through the entire subject, making known the information and knowledge that they had.

In truth, God did not call us on uncleanness (God did not invite us resting or based upon the state of not being free from mixture of that-which is against God, of being mixed with something else, having impurity from God's viewpoint mixed with us), but contrary to that being the case, God called us in holiness (within the sphere of action of sanctification; refer to verses 3 and 4 above).

Following on consequently, the person who rejects (displaces, un-puts, causes to put from himself) what God says regarding His call in holiness does not reject mankind but on the contrary he rejects God Who is the One Who is presently and actively giving His spirit, emphatically the holy spirit, into you. God is giving His spirit which is holy (sanctified) directed-to and into the interior of you who believe what He says.

We could not be holy if we had not received God's gift of holy spirit within us by means of the Lord Jesus Christ who accomplished salvation for us, and without holy spirit we could not live and walk in God's holiness. All holy-people are holy in the spirit category because we have received holy spirit-life – and this truth can never change. However, in the walk/behavior category it is up to each individual to continue to believe and obey what God says, to live our everyday lives in holiness and in honor, which is in accordance with the holy spirit within each one of us which is in accordance with God Himself and with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Also, we should understand that no matter who speaks God's Word, if the person hearing it rejects it, they are rejecting God, not the man or woman who spoke God's Word to them. Sometimes we may feel rejected when we speak forth God's Word and those to whom we are speaking do not want to hear it or believe it. In fact, some people may become agitated with us for speaking God's Word, which includes the good-message regarding the Lord Jesus Christ or perhaps we may be speaking specific information which we are receiving from God at that moment, but we must remember that if they reject the Word of God which we speak they are in truth rejecting the only true God.

[Reference: Luke 10:16; Acts 2:40, 15:20, 29; Romans 6:19 and 22, 12:19, 13:3 and 4; I Corinthians 1:30, 6:18-20; II Corinthians 2:11, 7:2, 12:17 and 18; Galatians 4:8; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; II Thessalonians 1:8, 2:13 and 14; Hebrews 10:30; I Peter 1:16.]

Verses 9-12:

^.9But concerning the brotherly-love you do not have a need (for me) to write to you for you yourselves are people-taught-by-God with-a-view to love¹ one-another ^.10for you also do it into all the brothers in (the) whole of Macedonia, but we encourage you, brothers, to rather exceed,^.11and to love-and-honor to be quiet, and to practice (your) own-things, and to work with your hands, according as we charged to you ^.12in order that you may walk decorously towards the (people) outside and you may have need of nothing.

About the brotherly-love (the friendly, brotherly kind of love that all mankind is capable of doing, and which all holy-people are to manifest towards each other because we are all brothers in the holy spirit category) - you do not have a need (you don't have a necessity, no use, it is not needful) for me to write to you. In truth, you (emphatically) yourselves are God-instructed ones (you are people taught by God, God is the One Who does the teaching and you are the people who are being taught by Him) for the purpose to love¹ each other; in truth you also do it (you perform it, evidence Godly-love) into, directed-to all the brothers in the whole of Macedonia.

The word "love¹" or the verb "to love¹" comes from the Greek word agape which is God's kind of love. To love with His love means to love the same way as God loves, to manifest God's love towards another, whether it is towards God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, yourself, your Christian neighbor, or towards anyone else. God tells His children today (all who have the spirit of Christ within us) how to Godly-love by means of His previously-revealed written Word and also via our holy spirit-life whereby we receive information from Him regarding how to love in different specific situations. It is the carrying out of God's commandments, His Word, which is the correct usage or way to manifest God's kind of love according to His will (refer to I Corinthians chapter 13 and I John 5:1-3). It is not the same as the brotherly or friendly kind of love, nor is it the same as the emotional/feelings/sexual kind of love.

Paul continues: but we encourage you, brothers (again 'encourage' and ‘brothers’ – as verse 1 above):

to rather exceed (to more-so, more and more, constantly-increasing, very much more abound, be over and above the number or measure already attained by you – as verse 10 above), and
to love-and-honor to be quiet (to exert yourselves from friendly or brotherly love and a sense of honor to achieve a goal, to accomplish a task, which is to be quiet, to live with quietness from within, tranquility from within and therefore causing no agitation or disturbance around you, to rest from being noisy seeking attention - not to be the person with the loudest voice in the entire assembly so that everyone has to listen to you all the time; this is not an encouragement to stop speaking, for then how could they tell others about all that God and His son, our Lord Jesus Christ, have done for all of mankind if they were not allowed to speak?; they were to love-and-honor to behave quietly during the everyday living of their lives), and
to practice your own things (habitually continue doing, be repeatedly in the process of accomplishing the things belonging to yourselves, not everybody else's affairs or business), and
to work with your hands (do your own work, deeds, actions, so as to produce and earn what you need to live appropriately),…

…according as we charged to you (we passed this message on to you previously) for the purpose and result that:

you would walk decorously (behave yourselves with goodly-elegance in outward-figure, with propriety of conduct or deportment) towards the people outside (external, outside of the church, those who are not limbs of the one spiritual body of Christ, the non-Christians, those people who have not yet or who may never receive holy spirit-life from God by means of the Lord Jesus Christ because they have not believed what God has given to be believed regarding Himself and His son) and that
you would have need of nothing (a want of something for your use of not one thing, no necessity due to lack, not depending on someone else, the government or the religious hierarchy for a 'free' pay-check to have food to eat, clothes to wear, etc).

[Reference: Luke 23:56; John 6:45; Romans 12:10, 13:13, 15:20; I Corinthians 4:12, 5:12, 14:40; Ephesians 4:28; Colossians 4:5; II Thessalonians 3:12; Hebrews 13:1.]

Verses 13 and 14:

^.13But we do not intend you to not-know, brothers, concerning the (holy-people) sleeping in order that you may not be caused-sorrow according as also the remaining-people, the (remaining-people) not having hope, ^.14for since we believe that Jesus died and resurrected thus also God will lead by means of Jesus the (holy-people) having been caused-to-sleep (to be) together with him:

Paul again addresses these holy-people as "brothers" thus emphasizing and reminding them of the truth that all holy-people are brothers in the spirit category because we are all children of God our Father.

Continuing to teach God's Word, Paul writes: but we do not intend/will you to not-know (to be ignorant, to be unknowing, unaware) about the holy-people who are presently sleeping (those who have been caused to sleep, here referring to the fact that they are dead at this time but it is a temporary state for dead Christians), brothers, for the purpose and result that you would not be caused sorrow (be made to grieve) according as also the rest of the people are caused-sorrow, i.e., the remaining-people not having hope (who do not have hope because they refuse to receive God's gift of holy spirit, they do not have the expectation of the definite still-future event promised to all holy-people).

In truth, since we holy-people presently and actively believe (have faith, trust) that…

Jesus died and resurrected (he died and he stood-up)

…it is in this manner also that…

God will lead by means of Jesus (God will bring through Jesus who died and resurrected) the holy-people who by that time will have been caused to sleep (will have died as Jesus was dead) to be together with Jesus (in conjunction with Jesus who is resurrected).

The Lord Jesus Christ will be the agency by way of which the initiated progress passes-through in order to reach the accomplishment of all dead holy-people being led (brought) by God from the state of being dead to the state of being resurrected, and then they will be together with Jesus who was dead but who is now resurrected.

[Reference: Romans 6:5, 8:11, 14:7-9; I Corinthians chapter 15; II Corinthians 4:14; Ephesians 2:12; Philippians 3:20 and 21.]

Verses 15-17:

^.15for we say this to you in (the) word of (the) Lord that we, the (holy-people) living, the (holy-people) being-left-around into the presence of the Lord, may never go-ahead-of the (holy-people) having been caused-to-sleep ^.16because the Lord himself, in (the) call-to-assemble, in (the) sound of (the) archangel, and in (the) trumpet of God, will descend from heaven and the dead-people in Christ will resurrect firstly, ^.17next we, the (holy-people) living, the (holy-people) being-left-around, will be unitedly caught-away together with them in clouds into a meeting of the Lord into (the) air and thus we will always be together with (the) Lord;

In truth, we (myself Paul and those with me) lay what I write here before you in the word of the Lord (within the sphere of action of the Lord's word, the Lord/Master Jesus Christ is the instrumental and efficient cause of this word being spoken; this spoken-account did not originate from myself or those with me but we speak his word) which is:

…that emphatically we, referring to the holy-people who are living (being alive), i.e. the holy-people who are being left-around (left remaining over, surviving on earth) into the presence of the Lord (the Lord's arrival, the coming and presence of the Master), may never go-ahead-of (we would emphatically not go in front of, never come before, never precede, overtake or come suddenly and surprisingly sooner than) the holy-people who will have been caused-to-sleep (having died) before the time of the Lord's presence comes.

The Thessalonian holy-people/Christians were obviously concerned that if the Lord Jesus Christ were to come in the very-near future while they were still living, then would they get to be with the Lord Jesus Christ before those Christians who had died, such as their father or mother or son or daughter or relative or friend who had also believed but had died since then. They knew that these dead Christians were NOT already in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ or with God or with the angels or in some limbo state or purgatory or somewhere else in-between! They knew that the holy-people who had died remained dead until such time as Christ comes and raises them up from being among the rest of the dead-people – but they did not know the specifics of the order in which Christ would gather the church of Christians together.

The holy-people living, being left-around into the presence of the Lord, may never go-ahead of the holy-people having been caused-to-sleep. Why not? Because the Lord himself (emphatically the Lord/Master Jesus Christ himself, nobody else)…

in the call-to-assemble (within or during the commanding-call, the signal-shout that summons and assembles all his holy-people/Christians at once),
in the sound of the archangel (within or during the voice or uttered-tone of the archangel - the first, highest, chief, or ruling angel – Michael; refer to Daniel 12:1 and Jude 9), and
in the trumpet of God (within or during God's trumpet making its trumpet-sound for this event)…

…will descend from heaven (he will come-down away-from heaven where he is currently sitting at the right-hand side of God carrying-out the duties of that authoritative position) and…

the dead-people in Christ will resurrect firstly (the dead-people in Christ refer to those within Christ's sphere of action, who belong to Christ because they had holy spirit-life within them while they were alive but who will have already died by the time that the Lord Jesus Christ descends from heaven; the dead holy-people will stand-up first time-wise sequentially when he comes – we should realize that this excludes all of the non-Christians who will have died since the day of Pentecost who refused to believe what God has given mankind to believe and so they refused to receive God's gift of holy spirit, plus this excludes all those people who lived and died before the day of Pentecost, i.e. before Acts chapter 2 whether they were of the Israeli/Judean background or of the Gentile/other-nation background),
next (secondly, next time-wise sequentially, after the resurrection of dead holy-people/Christians) we, the holy-people who are living (being alive), i.e. the holy-people who are being left-around (left remaining over, surviving on earth at that time), will be unitedly caught-away (in union together at the same time we will be snatched and carried away suddenly from the earth) together with them in clouds (in conjunction with the resurrected holy-people within particular and distinct clouds, not an indefinite cloudy mass that we see in the sky from time to time) into a meeting of the Lord into the air (the purpose will be with a view to, directed to the Lord's meeting when and where we will all be together; all holy-people together will meet the Lord face-to-face, we will go from earth and he will come from heaven to meet us – into the air, the gaseous mixture in the expanse between heaven and earth)…

…and in this manner we will always be together with the Lord. All holy-people will constantly be in conjunction with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, verses 15-17 reads:

^.15for we say this to you in (the) word of (the) Lord that we, the (holy-people) living, the (holy-people) being-left-around into the presence of the Lord, may never go-ahead-of the (holy-people) having been caused-to-sleep ^.16because the Lord himself, in (the) call-to-assemble, in (the) sound of (the) archangel, and in (the) trumpet of God, will descend from heaven and the dead-people in Christ will resurrect firstly, ^.17next we, the (holy-people) living, the (holy-people) being-left-around, will be unitedly caught-away together with them in clouds into a meeting of the Lord into (the) air and thus we will always be together with (the) Lord.

[Reference: Acts 1:9, 8:39; Romans 8:11 and 23-25, 9:31; I Corinthians 15:23 and 51-57 (all of chapter 15 may be helpful to read); James 5:7 and 8; I John 2:28.]

Verse 18:

^.18so-that you must encourage one-another in these words.

Following what is written in verses 13-17, Paul continues: with the result or consequence that you must encourage one-another (exhort, call each other beside you as a concerned father or mother would call their children close to them under their arms so as to help them to do that which is right) within these words (not any other words, but these words which are the spoken-account of the truth of the hope we have, the coming to be present of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the holy-people/Christians and our meeting him in the air).

Once again, the word "encourage" is used - we are to encourage, encourage, encourage one-another with God's Word. We do not need to wonder what is happening now concerning the dead-Christians, nor what is happening now to the Christians who are living, nor what will happen in the future to both. God has made this information known and it is written right here in His revealed and written Word.

[Note: verbs with a superscript 2 (²) immediately following them indicate the "perfect" tense - details are provided in the "Relevant Notes" link of this study.]

Isn't it wonderful that all holy-people/Christians have this hope - the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ when he will gather us all together with him at which time we will receive our spiritual bodies. This is detailed throughout First Corinthians chapter 15, but let us read verses 50-58:

I Corinthians 15:50-58:

^.50But this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood are not able to inherit (the) kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. ^.51Look! I say a mystery to you: we will not all be caused-to-sleep but we will all be changed: ^.52in an atom, in a sinking of an eye, in the last trumpet, for it will trumpet and the dead-people will be raised-up incorruptible and we will be changed; ^.53for it is necessary (for) this corruptible-thing to clothe-itself-with incorruption, and this mortal-thing to clothe-itself-with immortality ^.54but whenever this mortal-thing may clothe-itself-with immortality then the word, the (word) having been written², will come-to-pass, "Death was swallowed resulting-in victory." ^.55"Death – where (is) your victory? Death – where (is) your point?" ^.56But the point of death (is) the sin and the ability of the sin (is) the law. ^.57But thanks to God, the (One) giving to us the victory by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^.58so-that, my loved¹ brothers, you must become seated, un-removed, always exceeding in the work of the Lord, having known² that your labor is not empty in (the) Lord.

I Thessalonians Chapter 5