The section before us expresses the principal object of this Epistle, which was to correct the misapprehension that the Lord was about to come at once. Without professing to set forth all the events which would intervene between the date of his Epistle and the Lord's coming, the apostle enumerates t... [ Continue Reading ]
to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind [Shaken is a figurative expression taken from waves agitated by a storm. The minds of the Thessalonians having been instructed by Paul, and having a thorough apprehension of the entire subject, ought not to have been so readily, and with such s... [ Continue Reading ]
let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first [Paul uses the article "the" because this apostasy was well known to the church, its coming having been announced by Jesus (Matthew 24:10-12), and reiterated by Paul while at Thessalonica. This apostasy, or fa... [ Continue Reading ]
he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. [The antichrist will be antagonistic to God, and will exalt himself as a rival to everything that is worshiped, whether it be king or emp... [ Continue Reading ]
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [Literally, was telling. He had repeated the instruction often, and now reproves the Thessalonians for forgetting what he did say, and being agitated by false reports of what he did not say.]... [ Continue Reading ]
And now ye know [because Paul had told them verbally] _that which restraineth_ [i. e., retards and delays the antichrist], _to the end that he may be revealed in his own season_. [And not prematurely. Thus we see that the Thessalonians had a key to Paul's prophecy that we do not possess. His probabl... [ Continue Reading ]
For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. [In verse 6 we have a thing ("that which") restraining the person of antichrist, and in this verse we have the thing ("mystery of lawlessness") which would produce the antichri... [ Continue Reading ]
And then shall be revealed the lawless one whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming [After the removal of the hinderer, the vague spirit or mystery of lawlessness will become an embodied personality--a Christ-rival. At the me... [ Continue Reading ]
even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders [To give full force to the Greek we should here translate "all lying power, all lying signs, all lying wonders." Antichrist shall employ the methods of Satan, and shall prove his claims by false mir... [ Continue Reading ]
and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [Antichrist comes with lies, to those who love not the truth as to right and wrong, etc., that they may be saved by it; but sentence themselves to perish by preferr... [ Continue Reading ]
And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error [the threefold working of error mentioned in verse 9], _that they should believe a lie_ :... [ Continue Reading ]
that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. [God permits Satan to present lies to those who, because of their love for sin, desire to be deceived (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). Having given our exposition of the above passage, we should like also to give a h... [ Continue Reading ]
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth [From the sad picture of those who, through love of unrighteousness, were given over to the working of... [ Continue Reading ]
whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. [To this working of salvation God had called the Thessalonians, not by an arbitrary election, but by the gospel which Paul had preached to them, and he had called them that they might be possessors, o... [ Continue Reading ]
So then, brethren, stand fast [in contrast to being shaken, as stated in verse 2], _and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours_. [God was doing his part in calling and in sanctifying, and so the Thessalonians are here exhorted to do their part in firmly adhe... [ Continue Reading ]
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,... [ Continue Reading ]
comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. [Paul, as a minister of Christ, was endeavoring to comfort and establish the Thessalonians in their words and deeds, and he here prays that Christ himself and God the Father may thus comfort and establish them; and he describes the... [ Continue Reading ]