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1 Thessalonians 4 Bible study: Taught by God to love one another
1 Thessalonians 4 tells its readers they need no letter about brotherly love, "For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (4:9), and still asks them to "abound more and more" (4:10). And the verb behind exhort there is the verb of "Therefore comfort one another with these words." (4:18).
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“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.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“1 Thessalonians 4:9 says its readers have no need that one write to them about brotherly love.”
Is that in 1 Thessalonians 4, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
How you ought to walk
The chapter opens with Finally then: "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." (4:1) (tap exhort, received, walk, please, abound). Then: "For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus." (4:2) (tap instructions). Then the letter names some of them.
Where the Old Testament leads here
Not like the rest
Deuteronomy 14:1leads to1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
Moses tells Israel, "You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead" (14:1). Paul writes "concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13), and gives his reason: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Paul doesn't cite Deuteronomy 14, so this is a reading. Some hear one thread in both: in each, God's people face their dead as a people set apart, Israel as "a people for his own possession, above all peoples" (14:2), and believers from "the rest, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Others note that Moses forbids two acts and gives as his reason who Israel is (14:1-2), while Paul speaks of grief itself and gives as his reason that Jesus died and rose again (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and read the two as sharing a subject without one pointing to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Thessalonians 4
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Thessalonians 4 is waiting in Favor
- This is the will of God
- Taught by God
- Comfort one another with these words
- Lines that land here
- Asked elsewhere in Favor
- Set beside this chapter elsewhere in Favor
- 6 questions as you read
- 11 more Greek words
- A short check at the end
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The Greek word behind it
θεοδίδακτοςtheodidaktossay theh-od-EED-ak-tos
Strong's: "from G2316 and G1321; divinely instructed". "For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (4:9): behind taught by God is this one word, and this is the only place the New Testament has it (in all eight editions TAGNT compares). The letter doesn't say how they were taught (see the honest question).
For your group
1 Thessalonians 4 Bible study questions
- 1"that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more" (4:1). What helps you remember, in an ordinary week, that how you walk can please God?
- 2The letter says its readers are "taught by God to love one another" (4:9). Where have you seen that kind of love among the people you study with?
- 3"But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more" (4:10). They already love, and are asked for more. What might "more and more" look like for your group?
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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home