2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 - Lawlessness and Delusion

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

As the end approaches for judgment to finally fall on all, there will be ever increasing lies to delude people into refusing to believe the truth and love the lies they live by.  Sin reigns in the unrepentant who remain unregenerate through rejecting Christ and His gospel of grace.  Deliverance will come on the hidden day when the Son of God returns in great power (Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26) to judge the world in His righteousness (Acts 10:42-43, 17:31, Romans 2:16) as it is written.  We who know the Lord and are found in Him and in His righteousness have the assurance of being accepted by Him in grace on that Day and do not need to worry about when that is o the point of vainly attempting to calculate it based on scriptures out of context and not to be unveiled until the time arrives.  Even the Son in His humanity said that only the Father knows the time of His return (Mark 13:22, 30-31, 32-33), so we are to be concerned with living to please Him in response without being shaken or troubled to the point of assuming we can work out all the details which remain incomplete and purposefully hidden until He appears in the clouds for us.  We are called to watch and pray as we continue to bear witness to the work of Christ Jesus through the message of the gospel of repentance and faith.  We are not to be deceived by those claiming to know beyond what God has revealed, who try to convince us they have figured it out and tell us the day or time of His turn as if reading the times like tea leaves.  When the time comes and the falling away reveals the Antichrist who pretends to be the savior in place of the Lord, then those who worship the creature rather than the creator (Romans 1:25) will be ruled by lawlessness and delusion to their damnation while we who have been rescued with eyes wide open will not be deceived and will wait for the final judgment on all who deny the Lord and refuse to worship Him.  We are told these things to be ready ourselves and about our Father’s business to tell others the good news that provides the only answer to this end for all apart from Christ and His salvation.  Many will continue to mock us and even attack us for the truth in their delusions and lawlessness, but some will have theirs ears opened to stop following idols and turn from their sin of disbelief to trust in the words and work of Jesus Christ who alone is to be worshipped.  For we know that God holds back the outpouring of unrestrained evil until it is time and judgment falls on us all, and so we have hope and trust to endure until the Lord is revealed.  Those who reject Him and His gospel will remain in delusion and lies as they revel in unrighteousness to their own condemnation.  We offer hope and peace with God through all the trials and tribulation that we will live through until then.  Our hope is not to be taken away before those pressing days but to walk through them in the power and peace of our Lord with the gospel moving our feet (Isaiah 52:7, Romans 10:15) until His coming back.  Amen.