1Th 4:1
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.

1Th 4:3
4:3 {2} 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.

1Th 4:4
4:4 {3} That every one of you should know how to possess his
    vessel in sanctification and honour;

 (3) Another reason, because it defiles the body.

1Th 4:5
4:5 {4} 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.

1Th 4:6
4:6 {5} 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.

1Th 4:8
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.

1Th 4:9
4:9 {6} 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.

1Th 4:11
4:11 {7} 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.

1Th 4:13
4:13 {9} 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.

1Th 4:14
4:14 {12} 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.

1Th 4:15
4:15 {13} 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.

1Th 4:16
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.

1Th 4:17
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.

     (i) Suddenly and in the twinkling of an eye.