4:1 Furthermore 1 then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort
[you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how
ye ought to walk and to please God, [so] ye would a abound
more and more.
(1) Various exhortations, the foundation of which is this, to
be mindful of those things which they have heard from the
apostle.
(a) That you labour to excel more and more, and daily
surpass yourselves.
4:32 For this is the will of God, [even] your b
sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
(2) This is the sum of those things which he delivered to them,
to dedicate themselves wholly to God. And he plainly
condemns all filthiness through lust, because it is
altogether contrary to the will of God.
(b) See (Joh 17:17).
4:43 That every one of you should know how to possess his
vessel in sanctification and honour;
(3) Another reason, because it defiles the body.
4:54 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles
which know not God:
(4) The third, because the saints are distinguished by honesty
and purity from those who do not know God.
4:65 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.
(5) Secondly, he reprehends all violent oppression, and
immoderate desire, and shows most severely as the Prophet
of God, that God will avenge such wickedness.
4:8 He therefore that c despiseth, despiseth not man, but God,
who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
(c) These commandments which I gave you.
4:96 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write
unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one
another.
(6) Thirdly, he requires a ready mind to every manner of
lovingkindness, and exhorts them to profit more and more in
that virtue.
4:117 And that ye study to be quiet, 8 and to do your own
business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded
you;
(7) He condemns unsettled minds, and such as are curious in
matters which do not concern them.
(8) He rebukes idleness and slothfulness: and whoever is given
to these vices, fall into other wickedness, to the great
offence of the Church.
4:139 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, 10
concerning them 11 which are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope.
(9) The third part of the epistle, which is mixed in among the
former exhortations (which he returns to afterwards), in
which he speaks of mourning for the dead, and the manner of
the resurrection, and of the latter day.
(10) We must take heed that we do not immoderately mourn for
the dead, that is, as those do who think that the dead are
utterly perished.
(11) A confirmation: for death is but a sleep of the body (for
he speaks of the faithful) until the Lord comes.
4:1412 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in d Jesus will God e bring
with him.
(12) A reason for the confirmation, for seeing that the head is
risen, the members also will rise, and that by the power
of God.
(d) The dead in Christ, who continue in faith by which
they are ingrafted into Christ, even to the last
breath.
(e) Will call their bodies out of their graves, and join
their souls to them again.
4:1513 For this we say unto you by the f word of the Lord,
that g we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
(13) The manner of the resurrection will be in this way: the
bodies of the dead will be as it were raised out of sleep
at the sound of the trumpet of God. Christ himself will
descend from heaven. The saints (for he is referring to
them) who will then be found alive, together with the dead
who will rise, will be taken up into the clouds to meet
the Lord, and will be in perpetual glory with him.
(f) In the name of the Lord, as though he himself spoke to
you.
(g) He speaks of these things, as though he should be one
of those whom the Lord will find alive at his coming,
because the time of his coming is uncertain: and
therefore every one of us ought to be in such a
readiness, as if the Lord were coming at any moment.
4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a h
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
(h) The word which the apostle uses here, properly
signifies that encouragement which mariners give to one
another, when they altogether with one shout put forth
their oars and row together.
4:17 Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be i caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
