Single lesson
1 Thessalonians 4: Living to Please God
1 Thessalonians 4:1–12; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
This lesson helps older students trace two linked teachings in 1 Thessalonians 4. The passage speaks about living in a way that pleases God, then gives hope and comfort concerning believers who have died and the coming of the Lord.
Before you teach
The passage first urges believers to keep growing in the way they were taught to walk and please God. It speaks about sanctification, honour, love, quiet work and proper conduct. It then turns to grief, hope, Jesus’ death and resurrection, and being with the Lord forever.
Students will identify the two main teachings in 1 Thessalonians 4 and explain one suitable response from the passage about holy living or comforting others with hope.
Welcome: Two connected parts of the chapter
5 minWrite two headings where everyone can see them: ‘Living to please God’ and ‘Hope at the Lord’s coming’. Explain that both teachings come from the same chapter. Ask students to listen for repeated ideas such as ‘more and more’, ‘love’, ‘hope’ and ‘with the Lord forever’ as the passage is read.
1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:18
Read and explain: Walking to please God
10 minRead the first part aloud. Explain that ‘walk’ means the way a person lives. The passage says God’s will is sanctification. It names avoiding sexual immorality, controlling one’s own body with honour, and not acting with lust. It also says no one should take advantage of or wrong a brother or sister in this matter, showing that this command protects other people as well.
1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:6
Discuss: Love, quiet work and proper conduct
8 minContinue through the passage and list the everyday instructions students can see. Believers are taught to love one another, to abound more and more, to lead a quiet life, do their own business and work with their own hands. The passage says this helps them walk properly toward outsiders and have need of nothing.
1 Thessalonians 4:9, 1 Thessalonians 4:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:12
Make and respond: Reminder card from the passage
10 minRead the second part aloud. Then let each student choose one key verse from the passage for a small reminder card. On one side, they copy the verse. On the other, they write one realistic response from the passage, such as showing love, working faithfully or comforting someone with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:18
Closing: Grief with hope
7 minSummarise the final teaching carefully. The passage does not say believers never grieve. It says they should not grieve like those who have no hope. The reason given is that Jesus died and rose again, the dead in Christ will rise, and believers will be with the Lord forever. Invite students to name one truth here that brings comfort.
1 Thessalonians 4:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:18
Questions to explore
In the first part of the chapter, what actions show what it means to ‘walk and to please God’?
Look for the specific instructions in the passage itself, including sanctification, self-control with honour, love for one another, quiet living and work.
1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, 1 Thessalonians 4:11
What reasons does the passage give for taking these instructions seriously?
Use the passage’s own reasons: the instructions come through the Lord Jesus, God calls people in sanctification, rejecting this teaching is rejecting God, and no one should be wronged in this matter.
1 Thessalonians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, 1 Thessalonians 4:8
According to the second part of the chapter, how is grief described differently, and what words are meant to comfort believers?
Notice that the passage speaks about grief with hope, based on Jesus’ death and resurrection and the promise that believers will be with the Lord forever.
1 Thessalonians 4:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:18
Make, think or respond
Key Verse Reminder Card
What you’ll need
- index cards or paper
- pens or pencils
- Bibles
- markers
Try it together
- Read the passage aloud together.
- Ask each student to choose one verse that stands out and copy its exact words onto one side of a card.
- On the other side, ask them to write one realistic reminder linked to that verse, such as loving others, working quietly or comforting someone with hope.
- Invite each student to share the verse reference and explain how it connects to the passage’s teaching.
This activity helps students keep one exact teaching from the passage in view and connect it to a suitable response drawn from the text.
Adapt for your group
- For less confident readers, offer three possible verses to choose from: 1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:11 or 1 Thessalonians 4:18.
- For older or more advanced students, ask them to sort the chapter into two themes, conduct and comfort, and support each theme with exact verse references.
An optional closing prayer
‘Lord, please help us grow in lives that please you, love one another well, and comfort each other with the hope of being with you forever. Amen.’
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
1 Thessalonians 4
1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor,
5 not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,
6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.
7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
8 Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.
9 But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,
10 for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more;
11 and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you,
12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.
13 But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,
17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.