2 Thessalonians 2:6

2 Thessalonians 2:6. And now. These words may either mark the present time in contrast with the time when Paul was with them, alluded to in the preceding verse; or may mark the slight transition to a different aspect of the subject.

Ye know what withholdeth. They knew because Paul had told them; we have not that advantage, and can but surmise what it is which from Paul's time till now has exercised the restraining influence on wickedness. If we turn to our Lord's discourse, the only thing to which such power is ascribed is the purpose of God that the Gospel should first be preached for a witness unto all nations, before the end come (Matthew 24:14). Until this be accomplished the fit time for the revelation of the man of sin has not arrived, and he is therefore held in check. By this interpretation, ‘he who withholdeth' (2 Thessalonians 2:7) must be God Himself, and interpreters have generally refused to accept this reference, because the words ‘until he be taken out of the way' could not be used of God. It is to be observed, however,' that the expression so rendered in the Authorised Version is equally applicable to a voluntary withdrawal; indeed, it was not an unusual expression among the Greeks for declining battle. This interpretation might therefore appeal to the history of the world before the flood, in which God for a time kept down the wickedness, but when the time for judgment came pronounced the final word, ‘My Spirit shall not always strive with man.' The interpretation which most modern writers agree in accepting is that which understands ‘that which withholdeth' to be ‘the restraining power of well-ordered human rule, the principles of legality as opposed to those of lawlessness, of which the Roman Empire was the then embodiment and manifestation.' This is corroborated by Paul's own experience of the protection afforded by the Roman government, and also by the prophecy of Daniel already cited. In conformity with this, ‘he who withholdeth' is understood to be the Emperor or other person in whom for the time being such government resides, or (as in Daniel 10:5; Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:20) the good spirit (or angel) who aids the cause of God and His people by aiding human governments in the repression of those outbursts of godless lawlessness which threaten the destruction of all civil arrangements and institutions. Obviously, whatever the words signify, they must mean something which has existed from Paul's day to our own, something which during that whole period has had the effect of restraining wickedness.

That he might be revealed in his own time. The purpose contemplated by God in thus restraining the man of sin was that he might not be revealed before his appointed time (comp. Daniel 11:36).