2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 - Homilies By W.f. Adeney

One object, perhaps the principal object, of this Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, following as it does so closely upon the First Epistle, is to correct a disturbing error that was obtaining some considerable footing among the Macedonian Christians.

I. THE GREAT DELUSION . The First Epistle contains repeated references to an expectation of the second advent of Christ which was evidently very strong in the Thessalonian Church. The wish is father to the thought. From expecting "the day of the Lord" to arrive at any moment, some had been led, on most insufficient evidence, to ask whether it had not already come. The great delusion was that "the day of the Lord is now present ." It is not likely that any supposed Christ to have come, though in an invisible way, and in a different manner from which it was expected, or that they thought be might have come to another place, unseen and unknown to the Churches of northern Greece. What they were inclined to think seems to have been that the new era in which Christ was to appear had already dawned, though he himself had not yet come. Similar is the delusion of any who suppose that the day of grace is over and the time of judgment come, or that of those who think they have got into a new dispensation beyond the dispensation of the New Testament.

II. THE SOURCES OF THE DELUSION .

1 . Latter day prophecy. The expression "either by spirit" seems to refer to the supposed inspiration of Christian prophets. St. Paul had previously warned his friends to prove all things, while not quenching the Spirit by despising prophesyings ( 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 ). We must beware of self-deluded fanatics as well as of deliberate deceivers.

2 . False apostolical tradition. "By word" probably means by reported word of St. Paul, which word, however, never really came from him. Thus early were false traditions afloat. See the mistaken tradition about St. John ( John 21:23 ). If these erroneous traditions were current during the lifetime of the apostles, how can we accept so called "apostolic tradition" as an authority?

3 . A forged Epistle. The mistake could scarcely have arisen from our First Epistle to the Thessalonians, since that Epistle referred to the great day as future, while the error made it present. It is important to ascertain the authenticity of the books of Scripture.

III. THE DANGER OF THE DELUSION . St. Paul warns against it as something to be carefully avoided. Many evils attached to it.

1 . Erroneous views. These are bad in themselves, as true views are desirable on their own account. The soul suffers for want of truth as the body for want of light.

2 . Dishonouring conceptions of the seceded advent. If the day were already come, where was the glory, the judgment, the rectification of all things? False doctrines dishonour Christ even when they are meant to glorify him.

3 . Confusion of conduct. Such a delusion as that which was creeping into the Thessalonian Church would disarrange all practical life. Delusions about the second advent distract attention from sober Christian work.

IV. THE WARNING AGAINST THE DELUSION .

1 . Form no hasty opinion. " Be not quickly shaken," etc. Specious arguments should be examined at leisure before they are adopted.

2 . Do act permit novel teaching to give distress. If the heart is well settled in Christian truth, though the mind should be open to receive new light, no distress or disturbance need be felt.

3 . Beware of deception. "Let no man beguile you." Christians should be watchful and "wise as serpents," each having his own independent convictions.—W.F.A.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 . — The man of sin.

The man of sin and his awful character and career, here described by St. Paul, are subjects of such deep and dreadful mystery, that we may well take warning from the intricate confusion of the interpretations put forth by those people who profess to expound the fulfilment of prophecy, and content ourselves with accepting the prediction as it stands without attempting to identify it with particular historical events. Though some of its terms apply well to certain explanations, and others to different explanations, no explanation has yet been furnished which fairly and without any straining of words covers the whole of them. From Nero to the pope, from the days of the siege of Jerusalem to those of the yet future millennium, certain odious persons and systems have been selected for a realization of the prophecy. Leaving these dubious identifications, let us look at the main outlines of the picture.

I. THERE IS A MAN OF SIN . Whether he lived in the past or has yet to appear, a man to whom this awful name belongs is described in inspired Scripture. The Bible does not ignore the awful depths of human wickedness. It is dreadfully significant that this evil being is a man, not a devil. Humanity, which was created in the image of God and intended to be a temple of God, may be degraded into the image of Satan and become a haunt of iniquity. As good works through human sympathies, so does evil. A bad man is more dangerous than a fallen angel, because he is nearer to his fellow men.

II. THE MAN OF SIN FOLLOWS AN APOSTASY .

1 . Spiritual apostasy leads a man to moral corruption. The man who has forsaken Christ is tempted to fall into gross sin. Faith is the great preservative of morals.

2 . Apostasy lays the Church open to attacks from her enemies. The "man of sin" could not arise before the Church had fallen, nor if he had appeared could he have had any power against a faithful Church.

III. THE MAN OF SIN PRECEDES THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST . It was a mistake on the part of the Thessalonian Church to suppose that "the day of the Lord" had arrived, because the dreadful appearance of the man of sin which was to precede that day had not yet been seen. St. Paul warns us that apostasy and the frightful life of this wicked man—whoever he may be—must come before Christ returns. He does not encourage us to look for a gradual, unbroken progress of Christianity. The growth of the harvest fruit is arrested and delayed by frost and storm. Christ even wondered whether he should find any faith left on the earth at his return ( Luke 18:8 ). The glorious consummation of all things to which the Christian looks forward is not to be expected as the result of quiet improvement without relapse. Between the present and that "great Divine event" dark chasms of iniquity yawn. Every age has thought it could detect signs of this evil in its midst. So the unbelief and corruptions of our own day are taken by some to be "signs." Unhappily the language of the apostle warns us to expect more terribly demonstrative signs than any yet seen.

IV. THE APPEARANCE OF THE MAN OF SIN IS A SGN OF THE APPROACHING ADVENT OF CHRIST . Here is some encouragement for the Church to endure the trials of the darkest times. These times are to usher in the great and glorious day of the Lord. Evil, when most triumphant, is nearest defeat. Dreadful as may be its transient success, it will soon be swept away. When the horror of sin is blackest, the judgment which is to sweep it away is nearest at hand. Christ will come again when he will be most needed.—W.F.A.

2 Thessalonians 2:7 , 2 Thessalonians 2:8 .—The mystery of lawlessness.

The exact, objective application of this prediction, like that of the preceding description, is not easy to discover. But principles are involved which are susceptible of general application.

I. THERE IS A MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS . By this expression the apostle probably means a mystery the character of which is lawless.

1 . We may expect to meet with new mysteries. While time and inquiry resolve some mysteries, they bring upon us fresh ones. We are not to expect to be able to understand all the forces and influences with which we are surrounded. It is enough that we are in the hands of God who knows all, and trusting in Christ who can lead us safely through the darkness.

2 . New mysteries may be characterized by new lawlessness. The answer to our inquiries may be very unsatisfactory in revealing only evil. There are strange novelties which are obscure in all points but their moral character, and that is plainly evil. If so, we may hope for no good from them, and need not further interest ourselves in them.

3 . All lawlessness is mysterious. How did it originate? How is its existence possible? Why does not God sweep it away? These questions have perplexed men in all ages. We bow before them in helpless, pained wonder.

II. THERE IS A RESTRAINT ON THE MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS .

1 . Its full power is not yet revealed. There are those who treat all sin with unbecoming levity, because they do not yet see its terrible fruits. They are playing with a torpid adder, that may awake at any moment and inflict a fatal wound. No one knows what hidden possibilities of harm lurk in the deep caverns of undeveloped sin. There are volcanoes in the hearts of some quiet men which may burst into destructive fires.

2 . Human means may be used to restrain the mystery of lawlessness. Government, law, society, healthy habits of the majority, keep it down for a time.

3 . God holds the mystery of lawlessness in check. He is supreme over its wildest raging. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." God restrains the superabundant wrath of man ( Psalms 76:10 ).

III. THE HIDDEN MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS WILL BE REVEALED . The volcano must break into eruption some day. Evil cannot slumber forever. Hypocrisy will tire of its meek, innocent demeanour. The harvest of sin will have to be reaped. Let not any man put his confidence in the secretness or slowness of the processes of evil. The more they are hidden now, the worse will be the appalling outburst of them when the restraint under which they groan at present is released. The longer the wild horses are held in by the leash, the fiercer will be their mad gallop when they break loose.

IV. CHRIST WILL CONQUER THE MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS . Evil will not long be rampant. One fearful rebellion and then a tremendous defeat.

1 . Christ is to be the Conqueror of it. He came to destroy the works of the devil. We could not effect this great work. He, our Saviour, does it for us.

2 . Christ is to come again for this object. When the mystery is revealed, Christ's "manifestation" follows.

3 . Christ conquers with a breath. His first work was difficult, involving his death. His last work will be divinely simple, and yet sublimely successful.—W.F.A.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 .—The love of the truth.

The reason for the doom of those who are to be destroyed at the second coming of Christ here given, is that they do not receive the love of the truth.

I. GOD EXPECTS US TO RECEIVE THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH .

1 . Truth is good in itself. Truth is to the soul what light is to the body. It is natural for men to love the day, unnatural for them to shun it. In a right and healthy state we should love truth simply as truth, whatever else it be.

2 . Christian truth is peculiarly attractive. Scientific truth is beautiful, philosophic truth is valuable; but the truth of the gospel has far deeper attractions, because it contains revelation of the love and fatherhood of God, of the grace and goodness of Christ, of the redemption of the world, of the way of salvation, of the heavenly rest, etc.

3 . Truth should be welcomed with love. We cannot accept it to any advantage until we love it; for

II. IT IS AN EVIL HEART THAT PREVENTS MEN FROM RECEIVING THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH . St. Paul traces back the bad condition of those who reject the love of the truth to the fact that they "had pleasure in unrighteousness." The pleasures of sin cannot exist side by side with the love of the truth. Evil hates the light ( John 3:19 ). Moral corruption has no sympathy for the lofty thirst for truth of a pure soul. Hence it may be concluded that indifference to truth is a sign of moral evil. The corrupt life is a false life, and its departure from truth reveals the baseness of the character beneath. This is why the rejection of the truth is culpable. Intellectual doubt is of quite a different character. Indeed, it often arises from genuine love of truth, while self-satisfied orthodoxy is often quite indifferent to verifiable facts, preferring respectable error to painful truth.

III. THE PENALTY OF REJECTING THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH IS INCAPACITY TO KNOW TRUTH FROM ERROR . God punishes men in this condition by sending "them a working of error, that they should believe a lie." This is an awful fate. Truth is too precious a pearl to be cast before swine. They who do not love it shall not have it. Liars become incapable of knowing truth. The habit of indifference to truth so grows upon some people that the whole idea of truth becomes obscure and meaningless to them, and they ask with Pilate, half bewildered, half scornful, "What is truth?" Is not this a veritable destruction—the spiritual eye blinded and burnt out by the fires of falsehood and unrighteousness; the highest intellectual faculty, that of grasping truth, killed by corruption and falsehood? God save us all from this hideous doom!—W.F. A,

2 Thessalonians 2:13 , 2 Thessalonians 2:14 .—The Divine work of salvation.

We are to be thankful to God for the happy spiritual prospects of our fellow Christians, because they all spring from his good purpose and work. The most striking characteristic of the description before us is its attributing the whole process from beginning to end to the will and action of God.

I. THE BEGINNING .

1 . An initial Divine choice. This dates back to the dim ages of an awful antiquity. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning God chose his people for himself. Salvation is no after thought coming in to redeem the failure of creation. It was all planned from the first. When God made man he foresaw sin and determined on redemption. Each one of us is thought of by God from the first. We come into the world to fulfil vocations which God designed for us when he first planned the universe.

2 . A present Divine call. The choice would be of no use if it were not made known to us. But when the time for executing God's great design has arrived, he makes it sufficiently known for us to be able to follow it. He calls by the preaching of the gospel. The gospel, then, is an invitation. It is good news, but only for those who will accept the invitation. This new gospel came to bid men fulfil an ancient destiny. The latest work accomplishes the oldest thought of God.

II. THE PROCESS .

1 . Sanctification of the Spirit. This is the Divine side of the process. Prior to it is the great atoning work of Christ. But that work is done for us that we may receive the Spirit of God as its fruit. Now we are looking at the work of God in us. God purifies and consecrates his people by an inspiration of his own Spirit. No safety is possible to the guilty, no glory to the unholy. The cleansing process must come before the great end can be reached.

2 . Belief of the truth. This is our side of the process. It is useless for us to wait for our sanctification and for the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is to produce it. It will not come without our active reception of it. There is no magic about the process of the descent of the Holy Ghost. It comes on certain conditions being fulfilled by us.

(1) Truth is the vehicle that conveys it into our hearts.

III. THE END .

1 . Salvation. Take this word in the largest, roundest sense, as deliverance from all evil. It is painfully true that in our greatest joy and thankfulness we have to recollect that at best we are plucked as brands from the burning. No blessing can be enjoyed till the awful ruin into which our souls were all of them sinking through our great and dreadful sin has been stayed.

2 . Glory. Salvation is the beginning of God's work in us; glory is the completion of it. We can have no glory while we are in the mire of sin and wretchedness. But when we are delivered, God will not leave us like drowning men on a barren rock, saved from present destruction indeed, but with dreary future prospects. He will not have ended his work with us till he has exalted us into the region of his own glory.—W.F.A.

2 Thessalonians 2:16 , 2 Thessalonians 2:17 .—A benediction.

I. THE SOURCES OF THE BENEDICTION . A true benediction is more than an expression of good wishes. It is a prayer by one who has especial weight in intercession, although it is expressed to the person for whom it is offered. The benediction of so great and good a man as St. Paul is of great value, because the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." But the blessings desired by the apostle are not given by him any more than the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to their children were given by the patriarchs. The sources of the blessings of a benediction are not human nor earthly at all. Here they are declared.

1 . The personal influence of Jesus Christ. This is strikingly expressed by the reference to "our Lord Jesus Christ himself." His brotherhood and his love lead him to bless us. His Divinity, his goodness, and his sacrifice give him authority in heaven. In his own right he blesses. And he does not delegate the blessing. He confers it himself.

2 . The fatherhood of God. Because God is "our Father" we may expect blessings from him. Fears and doubts arise from partial views of God, and views which leave out of account his great fatherly nature. He does not bless as a Master paying wages, but as a Father dealing affectionately with his children.

II. THE ASSURANCES OF THE BENEDICTION . Grounds for believing that God will give the blessing are given for the encouragement of faith.

1 . Love in the past. He has revealed his character by his providence, and he has proved in this way that he loves his children. But a parent's love is distinguished from all other kinds of love by its permanence. If God ever did love, he still loves.

2 . Eternal comfort. This we have now in the peace of forgiveness and the rest of faith. The peace is such that the world can neither give nor take away. The rest is beneath the shadow of a great rock that outlasts even the seemingly everlasting hills.

3 . Hope for the future. God has uttered promises and encouraged hopes. We cannot believe that he will mock the expectations which he has raised.

III. THE OBJECTS OF THE BENEDICTION .

1 . Heart comfort. We have eternal comfort; nevertheless we need more comfort. No soul is yet perfectly at rest. Sorrow distresses the most trustful.

2 . Stability in work and word. We must not stop at comfort. We are consoled in distress that we may be free and strong and glad for service.