1 Thessalonians 4:3

Plain English Version

This is what God wants. He wants you to be properly good and to keep away from everything that is wrong. If somebody is not your own wife or husband, don’t sleep with them as if you are married to them.

Cross References

Psalm 40:8

God, it makes me really happy to do everything that you want. I always think about your laws and obey them.

Matthew 5:32

But now I’m telling you this, husbands and wives have to stay married to each other. Only if a man’s wife sleeps with another man, as if he is her husband, only then can her husband divorce her. But if a wife never does that, then her husband can’t divorce her. If he divorces her, he is forcing her to marry another man and sleep with him, and that is wrong. And the man that marries her is doing wrong too.”

Matthew 7:21

And Jesus said, “Lots of people call me, ‘My leader and my boss,’ but some of them will never be in God’s family. God will only have people that do what he wants them to do. God will have those people in his family, but not the other people. God is my father in heaven.

Mark 3:35

My real family are the people that listen to God, and that do what he says. Those people are my brothers, and my sisters, and my mothers.”

John 4:34

Jesus said, “Nobody gave me any food. I do everything my father wants me to do, and that keeps me going. It is like food for me. My father sent me here to do his work, and I want to finish it.

John 7:17

If anyone really wants to live God’s way, they will know that those words came from God, and that I did not make them up.

Acts 15:20

We have to write them a letter, to tell them not to worry about getting that young man operation. But we’ll tell them to follow just these rules, – If somebody reckons that a statue is a god, and if they give food to that statue to show respect to it, don’t eat any of that food. – And don’t sleep with somebody that you are not married to, as if they are your wife or husband. – And if somebody holds an animal’s neck really tight to kill it, don’t eat its meat. – And don’t eat the blood of animals.

Acts 15:29

If somebody reckons that a statue is a god, and if they give food to that statue to show respect to it, don’t eat any of that food. – And don’t eat the blood of animals. – And if somebody holds an animal’s neck really tight to kill it, don’t eat its meat. – And don’t sleep with somebody that you are not married to, as if they are your wife or husband. Make sure you don’t do those things, and you will be all right. That’s our message to you now. Goodbye.”

Acts 20:32

Paul kept on talking. He said, “Now I’m asking God to keep you safe, and to keep you believing the true message that God is very good to you and will save you. If you keep on believing that message, you will grow strong for God, and you will know that you are in God’s family, and God will give you the good life that he is keeping for his own people.

Acts 26:18

and you will tell them the true message about me. It will be like you will open their eyes so that they can see things properly. They will come to God. Then Satan, the boss over the bad spirits, he will not control them with his power any more. It is like they are always in the dark now, but they will come into the light. They will believe in me, and they will stop believing lies. And then God will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did, and they will be God’s people.’ Jesus said that to me.”

Romans 1:29

They are very bad, and they are greedy, they want lots of money and things. And they are really horrible. They want to take things that belong to other people. They murder people, they argue, they cheat other people, and they do mean things to people. They gossip,

Romans 12:2

Don’t be like most of the people in the world that like to do bad things. You have to be different from them. You have to let God change the way you think, so that you will become new people. Then you will be able to find out the things that God wants you to do, and you will know what is good, and the things that really make God happy.

Romans 6:22

So now you can’t think about doing bad things any more, but instead, you have to only think about working for God. Then you will do good things, and then you will be God’s special people and you will live with him for ever.

1 Corinthians 1:30

But as for you, God joined you to Jesus Christ. You and us together, Jesus helps us to be wise, like God. And Jesus makes us to be God’s friends, so that he will tell us we are all right. And Jesus makes us God’s own special people too. Jesus died to pay for us and set us free from everything that is wrong.

1 Corinthians 7:2

You see, a lot of people can’t do that. They try to stay single, but then they go wrong, and they end up sleeping with somebody, as if they are married to each other. So, I reckon, every man has to have his own wife and only ever sleep with her, and every woman has to have her own husband and only ever sleep with him.

Galatians 5:19

You see, everybody knows about the bad things that people do to make themselves feel good. They sleep with people that are not their own wives or husbands, and they do what married people do together. They think about dirty things, and then they do those bad things. They don’t try to control their bad thoughts.

Ephesians 5:17

Don’t be fools. But instead, understand what God wants.

Ephesians 6:6

Do what they say, and try to make them happy. Don’t only do it when they can see you, but also when they can’t see you. Work happily in your job, like you are working for Jesus Christ, and then you will be doing what God wants.

Colossians 1:9

Yes, Epafras told us about you, and so now we pray for you all the time. We ask God to help you to know what he wants you to do. And we pray that he will help you to understand spiritual things properly, and think about them properly.

Colossians 3:5

So now you have to stop doing bad things. If that bad part inside you wants you to do something bad, don’t do it. It’s like you have to kill that old bad part inside you. Don’t listen to it. Don’t sleep with anyone that is not your wife or your husband, as if you are married to them. And don’t think bad, dirty thoughts. Don’t think about doing bad things. Don’t be greedy, wanting lots of money and things. Greedy people respect money and things more than they respect God.

Colossians 4:12

And Epafras is another one of your mob that is here with me. He says hello to you too. He works for Jesus too, and he is always praying strongly for you. He prays that you will keep on trusting God, and that you will properly know everything that God wants you to do.

1 Thessalonians 4:2

You know the things that we told you to do. Our leader, Jesus, got us to tell you those things.

1 Thessalonians 4:4

Every one of you has to learn how to control your own body in a way that is clean and good.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Always thank God, no matter what happens to you. You see, you belong to Jesus Christ, so God wants you to do those things.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

God is the one that helps people to be happy and quiet inside themselves. I want that for you, and I’m asking God himself to clean you properly inside, so that you will be his special people. I want God to help you be properly good in every way, with your body, and your spirit, and also that part inside you that thinks and that gives you your feelings. Yes, God can clean you and help you be properly good, so that at the time when our leader, Jesus Christ, comes back, God will not blame you for doing anything wrong.

2 Thessalonians 2:13

But, Christian friends, we thank God that you are not in that mob. Right from the start, God picked you to be the ones that he will save. And he put his Holy Spirit into you, to save you. We told you the true message about Jesus, and you believed it. It is like God called to you, at that time, to come and join his mob. And now God’s spirit works in you all the time to change you into God’s special people. And God will make you great, like our leader Jesus Christ.

Titus 2:14

Jesus died to save us from all the bad things of this world. He did that to change us into his own special people, like he properly cleaned us inside, and now we don’t want to do anything bad, but we only want to do good things.

1 Peter 1:2

A long time ago, God, our father, knew you, and he picked you to be in his family. His spirit picked you out from other people to make you his special people. You listened to Jesus’s words, and you did whatever he said. Jesus died and his blood came out, and it is like God put that blood of Jesus on you to make you clean. I’m asking God to be properly good to you, and to make you feel really happy and quiet inside yourselves.

1 Peter 4:2

It shows that you want to do the things that God wants. So whenever you want to do something bad, you have to turn away from it and live God’s way.