| New Living Translation | Christian Standard Bible |
| 1Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more. | 1Additionally 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. |
| 2For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. | 2For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. |
| 3God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. | 3For this is God's will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, |
| 4Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— | 4that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, |
| 5not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. | 5not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don't know God. |
| 6Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. | 6This means one must not transgress against and take advantage 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. |
| 7God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. | 7For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. |
| 8Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. | 8Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. |
| 9But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. | 9About brotherly love: You don't need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. |
| 10Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more. | 10In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, |
| 11Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. | 11to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, |
| 12Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others. The Hope of the Resurrection | 12so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone. |
| 13And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. | 13We 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. |
| 14For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. | 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. |
| 15We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. | 15For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord's coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. |
| 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. | 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. |
| 17Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. | 17Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. |
| 18So encourage each other with these words. | 18Therefore encourage one another with these words. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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