It is God’s will(A) that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;(B) that each of you should learn to control your own body[a](C) in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust(D) like the pagans,(E) who do not know God;(F) and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b](G) The Lord will punish(H) all those who commit such sins,(I) as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.(J) Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.(K)

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Thessalonians 4:4 Or learn to live with your own wife; or learn to acquire a wife
  2. 1 Thessalonians 4:6 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family.

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

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God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body[a] and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife,[b] for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:4 Or will know how to take a wife for himself; or will learn to live with his own wife; Greek reads will know how to possess his own vessel.
  2. 4:6 Greek Never harm or cheat a brother in this matter.