---
title: "1 Thessalonians 4 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/1-thessalonians/4/
description: "He exhorts them to purity and mutual charity. He treats of the resurrection of the dead. 1 Thessalonians 4 in the Catholic Public Domain Version."
---

# 1 Thessalonians 4

1 Thessalonians 4 is chapter 4 of 5 in the First Letter to the Thessalonians. Here are all 18 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version.

> He exhorts them to purity and mutual charity. He treats of the resurrection of the dead.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 1 Thessalonians 4 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

Verse numbers follow the CPDV.

1. Therefore, concerning other things, brothers, we ask and beg you, in the Lord Jesus, that, just as you have received from us the way in which you ought to walk and to please God, so also may you walk, in order that you may abound all the more.
2. For you know what precepts I have given to you through the Lord Jesus.
3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication,
4. that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor,
5. not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God,
6. and that no one should overwhelm or circumvent his brother in business. For the Lord is the vindicator of all these things, just as we have preached and testified to you.
7. For God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification.
8. And so, whoever despises these teachings, does not despise man, but God, who has even provided his Holy Spirit within us.
9. But concerning the charity of brotherhood, we have no need to write to you. For you yourselves have learned from God that you should love one another.
10. For indeed, you act in this way with all the brothers in all of Macedonia. But we petition you, brothers, so that you may abound all the more,
11. to choose work that allows you to be tranquil, and to carry out your business and to do your work with your own hands, just as we have instructed you,
12. and to walk honestly with those who are outside, and to desire nothing belonging to another.
13. And we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are sleeping, so as not to be sorrowful, like these others who do not have hope.
14. For if we believe that Jesus has died and risen again, so also will God bring back with Jesus those who sleep in him.
15. For we say this to you, in the Word of the Lord: that we who are alive, who remain until the return of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16. For the Lord himself, with a command and with the voice of an Archangel and with a trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven. And the dead, who are in Christ, shall rise up first.
17. Next, we who are alive, who are remaining, shall be taken up quickly together with them into the clouds to meet Christ in the air. And in this way, we shall be with the Lord always.
18. Therefore, console one another with these words.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 2518: Purification of the Heart ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2813: "Hallowed be Thy Name" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2427: Economic Activity and Social Justice ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 649: On the Third Day He Rose From the Dead ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 989: "I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1001: Christ's Resurrection and Ours ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1025: Heaven ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1687: The Celebration of Funerals ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, ch. 9, 1897 (On this theme: verse 3)

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Nov 8, 2026: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time — Second Reading, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
- Fri, Aug 27, 2027 (computed): St. Monica — First Reading, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
- Sat, Aug 28, 2027 (computed): St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church — First Reading, 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11
- Mon, Aug 30, 2027 (computed): Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

1 more date through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain.