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CHAPTER 4Saints exhorted to be holy, sanctify themselves, and love one another—The Lord shall come and the dead shall rise. |
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1 FURTHERMORE then we
beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye
have areceived of us how ye ought to
bwalk and to cplease God, so ye
would dabound more and more.
2 For ye know what commandments awe gave you by the Lord Jesus. |
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3 For this is the will of God, even your
asanctification, that ye should babstain
from
cfornicationa:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his avessel in bsanctification and honour; 5 Not in the alust of concupiscence, even as the bGentiles which cknow not God: 6 That no man ago beyond and defraud his brother in bany matter: because that the Lord is the cavenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. |
3a abstain from fornication Any sexual relationship between any persons outside of marriage between a man and a women is not ordained of God and is sexual sin, that is fornication. Pre-marrital, extra-marrital, homosexual and etc.; they are all forbidden and are not of the Lord and one is not sanctified in the Lord is one is so envolved in any of them. Only in the marriage union of a man and a women is the sexual relationship ordained of God. Even the powers of legalization by the laws of the land do not and cannot change the laws and commandments of God. Some seem to think that they can so presure the Lord's Church to so conform to their own wordly desing and desire by making things legal and lawful, but for membership in the Lord's kingdom, one is to live according to the Law of God and not according to the laws of men. | |
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7 For God hath not called us unto
auncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that adespiseth, bdespiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his choly Spirit. 9 But as touching abrotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are btaught of God to clove one another. |
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10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
11 And that ye astudy to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to bwork with your own chands, as we commanded you; 12 That ye may walk ahonestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. |
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13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleepa,
that ye asorrow
not, even as others which have no bhope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, athat bwe which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not cprevent them which are asleepa. |
13a I would not hve you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep They that are asleep are the dead. Paul in
1 Corinthians 15 will speak of baptism for the dead and their possiblity for their
redemption to be leveled with those who hear of Christ in the living.
15a we which [who] are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep Here Paul is speaking of the dead as having the same possiblities as the living unto salvation and the coming of Christ. Thus Paul here in verse 13 and 15 has spoken again to the topic of the salvation of the dead, which begin with such ordinances as baptism for the dead. |
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16 For the Lord himself shall
adescend from heaven with ba shout, with
the voice of the carchangel, and with the
dtrump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
erise firsta:
17 aThen we which are alive and remain shall be bcaught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the cLord in the dair: and so shall we eever be with the fLord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. |
16a the dead in Christ shall rise first These dead who rise first in Christ are they who return with him at his coming. Whether they have received the gospel in life or after death by the temple work for the dead it mattereth not. If they have been recieved to be so 'in Christ' of his covent bound people they will return to earth with him at his second coming and those who live to behold the coming will then be raised to join them in the 'heaven.' Some Christians understanding of this event is referred to as the 'rapture.' | |