2 Thessalonians 2:10

and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish Both reading and rendering need to be amended; it is rather, and in all deceit of unrighteousness for the perishing the opposite of "them that are being saved," or "the subjects of salvation" (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15). They follow, alas, the guidance of "the son of perdition," and share his ruin (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

"Deceit of unrighteousness" is a phrase compounded similarly to "good pleasure of goodness," ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:11; it signifies such deceit as belongs to unrighteousness, that which it is wont to employ. These devices are "deceit for the perishing," for men without the lie of God, whose spiritual perception is destroyed by sin and who therefore fall a prey to deceit. The children of God are not imposed upon by these means; they know how to "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Read carefully 1 John 4:1-6, and compare with this context.

because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved Placing himself amid the scenes of the triumph of Antichrist and viewing the sad fate of his victims, St Paul explains their ruin. They had no "love of the truth." This sentiment they never "entertained." And so in compensation for thisthey believe wicked lies, to their undoing: in return for their refusal to entertain the love of the truth. On receive, see note to 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (second "received"); there is implied a want of heartto receive.

It is not "the truth" simply, but "the loveof the truth" that these unhappy men repudiate. Their unbelief is not of the reason so much as of the heart. Those of whom the Apostle speaks resist "the truth" with an instinctive, invincible prejudice; for they have no desire to "be saved" from the sins it condemns. Christ found in this moral prepossession the reason why so many rejected His word. "Every one that doeth evil," He said, "hateth the light" (John 3:20; comp. John 10:26; &c.). So St Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "Our gospel is a veiled thing amongst them that perish. The god of this world has blinded their minds … that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ may not shine upon them." It is a just, but mournful result, that rejecters of Christ's miracles become believers in Satan's, and that atheism should be avenged by superstition. So it has been, and will be.