2 Thessalonians 2:3

2 Thessalonians 2:3. Let no man deceive you by any means, either by professing superior enlightenment as if a spirit spoke through him, or by interpreting my words as if I had meant what he affirms.

The apostasy, of which Paul had spoken while at Thessalonica, and which our Lord predicted in Matthew 24:12 as a characteristic of the last days. Comp. also the concluding words of the parable of the importunate widow, ‘When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth.' This general ‘going out from us' of those who ‘were not of us,' this widespread falling away from faith in Christ, will apparently be produced by distressing outward circumstances, the perplexed and disturbed state of nations, and calamities of the kind most difficult to be borne. So that when our Lord speaks of this apostasy, pity rather than surprise or reproach is the pre-dominating sentiment in His mind.

The man of sin. This title might appropriately be used of an element existing in many men, as Paul elsewhere speaks in that sense of ‘the old man;' or it might be used as the designation of a class of men rather than of an individual, as we speak of ‘the intemperate man;' but when we read on and find that all the expressions Paul uses regarding ‘the man of sin' and his coming are not only personal but individual, we cannot but think he expected that the final outburst of evil would be headed by a personal Antichrist

Be revealed. Before Christ is revealed, Antichrist must first be revealed. The same term is used of both; strengthening the supposition that Paul speaks of a personal, individual Antichrist. Paul speaks of the revelation of the man of sin in contrast with the hidden working of iniquity which had already begun, 2 Thessalonians 2:7. ‘Even as Christ is now spiritually present in His Church, to be personally revealed more gloriously hereafter, even so the power of Antichrist is now secretly at work, but will hereafter be made manifest in a definite and distinctive bodily personality' (Ellicott).

The son of perdition. The term applied to Judas, and signifying the most intimate connection of the person with perdition.