I Thessalonians 4

I Thessalonians 4:3:
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

​​The word “fornication,” (translated here as "sexual immorality") from the Greek word porneia, is the same root from which we get the word pornography. Fornication refers to any sexual behavior deviant from God’s moral law. Thus, 1 Thessalonians 4:3 is a command to “abstain from pornography” since it is God’s will that we be sanctified or set apart. Attempting to live a life of holiness and moral purity is a spiritual battle and personal struggle (Rom. 7:8-23). But it is not a struggle that cannot be overcome

---

 I Thessalonians 4:13:
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

​Paul didn’t want us to be uninformed about death “so that [we would] not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13, NIV). He wanted us to have a proper narrative in which death has a lifespan, a beginning and an end. He was acquainted with the sorrows of death and loss but learned how to orient his perspective around the story of God and everlasting life.
You can’t remove sin and death from the Christian story and still get eternal life. Nor can you acknowledge someone’s death and forget that they still live, fully alive in Christ. You can’t be filled with the Spirit of God and all manner of healing and ignore the reality of a broken soul. Nor can you live in the brokenness of a depraved soul and not allow God’s Spirit to fill you and lead you into healing.
A healthy and vibrant faith seems to acknowledge the real suffering of our human experience, without losing sight of the bigger story of victory in which “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21, NIV). -Natasha Dongell; Wesleyan Church

---

I Thessalonians 4:14-15:
​14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 
​15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

​I Thessalonians 4:16-18:
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 
17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Greg Laurie

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (NKJV). The words “caught up” are from the root word “harpazo,” which is translated “rapturus” in Latin, and you get your English word “rapture” from it. So after the Rapture happens, a mysterious, charismatic man emerges on the scene that the Bible calls the beast, and the Antichrist. The Antichrist inaugurates a seven year tribulation period. So the Rapture, then the Antichrist, then the Tribulation (so you can kind of get an idea of how things fit together). The Tribulation period begins peacefully. The Antichrist deceives people because he brings global peace temporarily. In fact, the Bible says through peace, he will deceive many. Then this all culminates in the Battle of Armageddon, fought at the end of the Tribulation period, and then comes the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.    ― Greg Laurie, Harvest; Chronology of End Times Events 8.25.23

---