2Th 2:1-12; What You Want – God Will Give It.Tuesday September 19, 2023
Theme: The deceived pursue unrighteousness and God will deliver them over to the sins that result and their effects.
2Th 2:8-12 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
This week we’ll be focusing on 2 things: 1. What is deception and what does the Bible tell us about it?
2. Why does God send a strong delusion to those already deceived, and does He only do so during the Tribulation period or at other times as well?
Deception – apate = that which gives a false impression, deception, deceitfulness.
Deception is more involved than being tricked or believing what someone said on the news that was a lie.
“all deception of wickedness” – wickedness is adikia = unrighteousness, deeds violating law and justice. [dikia is righteousness, negative alpha]
All deception of wickedness – the signs and false wonders convince a great deal of people in the Tribulation that the antichrist is god and therefore, the wickedness that he promotes must be good.
The same has been happening throughout all history in a more restrained way.
The mystery of lawlessness is a forgery of God’s mystery.
What would be understood about this word “mystery” is the context of the secret rites and teachings of mystery religions in the Greco-Roman world.
Paul (it would seem tongue in cheek) uses the term to refer to the kingdom of lawlessness. A kingdom of secret rites and secret knowledge, but he reveals the mystery. The kingdom of lawlessness promises mankind all the good stuff that God “apparently” has been holding back. Paul shows that it is nothing more that the deceit of wickedness. It is a forgery of God’s own mystery of Christ and the kingdom of heaven.
The mystery of lawlessness is the deceit of wickedness.
Deceit is the power of that kingdom. Therefore, its power is emptiness, smoke and mirrors. The deceit leads to sins that ruin life.
Some escape and others do not.
The ones who escape “receive the love of the truth,” and those who become entrapped do not receive it.
They receive it. They do not search it out and take hold of it. It can only be received and God sends it to every person.
It is received by faith: “who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness.”
If you have believed in Christ as your Savior, you have immediately escaped some of the deceptions of wickedness. It remains for us to see it we have escaped them all.
God gives the unbeliever over to the sins that result from the deception of wickedness. This is a beginning to our understanding of vv. 11-12.
2Th 2:11-12 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
God gives them over. Paradidomai – to deliver, to hand over.
Rom 1:18-25 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
“Suppress” (vs. 18) is the same word used in 2Th 2:7 (“restrains”) for the restraining of the mystery of lawlessness.
“Therefore” - The result of their idol worship = uncleanliness (impurity) and dishonoring their bodies.
Dishonoring the body is to use it in a fashion that God had not designed it for.
If you do not honor God (vs. 21) you will dishonor your body (vs. 24).
Believers are obviously not immune to this truth. All of us have the flesh and its lusts and passions (Gal 5:24).
The effects on the mind and body of uncleanliness and dishonor began with the deception of unrighteousness.
The idols promise all the things that God is “apparently” holding back or restricting.
God continues, in vs. 26, to give them over to further indecency – homosexuality.
Rom 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Homosexuality was accepted and condoned in Greco-Roman society, as it is currently in our society.
The word “degrading” is of the same root word in Greek as “dishonored” in vs. 24. Passions is pathos. Pathos can be a good thing.
Notice the frequency of the word “exchanged.”
Rom 1:23 exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image
Rom 1:25 they exchanged the truth of God for a lie
Rom 1:26 exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural
An exchange is a transaction between two parties in which each has a commodity. The commodities in this passage that God has given to the human race (all) are: the glory of God, the truth, and understanding of the natural function of man. With these in his possession, instead of investing them properly, he exchanged them for an image, a lie, and for the unnatural.
In the deception of unrighteousness, God delivers them over to: Uncleanliness that results in dishonored body. Dishonored passion that results in sexual immorality. Depraved mind that results in all things not fit for mankind.
Rom 1:28-32 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Are believers then immune to the deceptions of unrighteousness?
Unfortunately, no. There are at least a dozen examples in Scripture.
Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
No one is going to get away with it.
Jam 1:15-16 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
But as believers, having the weapons that our Lord has graciously given us (all believers have them): His word, His Holy Spirit, His armor; we can escape the deception and live, not in the unclean, dishonored, depraved life, but the abundant life of Christ.
We stand between two worlds that overlap: the flesh and the Spirit. Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
Paul’s opening in Romans reveals to us that we believers stand in the midst of both advents of Christ.
In the present evil age, full of the deceptions of wickedness, we Christians continue to live in the flesh, but at the same time indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Paul alludes to this in his opening:
Rom 1:3-4 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Both stages of His first advent are here – the flesh (death) and resurrection of the flesh (Spirit).
You have set before you every day from the two lives that overlap within yourself – the flesh and deception or the Spirit of truth. “Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.”
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