2 Thessalonians 2:1-17
The Man of Lawlessness
1Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Stand Firm
13But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
St. Paul tells us that Jesus will return...Some Thessalonians believed that the day of the LORD has already come...St. Paul corrects them... The evil one is the man of lawlessness...There will be an uprising in the time to come...Satan will lead this destruction...He may cause evil by himself or use the wicked to do his destructing...The evil one will set himself up in the temple and proclaim to be God...Evil is always at work...We are tempted everyday...Everyday the choices we make, either get us closer to God, or closer to the evil one...
St. Paul teaches that Jesus is the truth...When we are searching for an answer to anything, whether it be your search for faith, or an answer to any question we have about anything...We should want the truth...The truth may not be comfortable, it may not be something we even like, it may not be the answer we want, but if that is the right answer, the true answer, then you have the truth...The man of lawlessness wants us to search for the flesh for comfort and pleasure, and not for the truth...The evil one is always at work trying to fool us, confuse us in our thinking that what we are doing is okay...The evil one wants us to think that we, as man are powerful, and can make all of our decisions, without God...But God created us, we need Him...We cannot live this life or an eternal life without Him...
When Jesus returns to earth in His second coming, He will destroy evil...The truth will be made known to all...Then we will understand that we need Him and not the man of lawlessness...We then will have eternal life...
God is not part of everything in this world...God is separate from this world and is not a part of evil...Satan wants us to believe that our Father is involved in some of his temptations and his doings...Perfect Good does not do evil and is not a part of evil...The daily decisions we make everyday impact us, others...Some good or some evil is at work all of the time...Satan wants us to focus on idols, job, money, sex, pleasure, desire, and the things we have...This is our history...Jesus wants us to focus on God...If we learn and live by Jesus teachings, everything else comes to us...
We must stand firm, so that we will see the glory of the LORD...
Our desires, our pleasures, our material wants, this world and the flesh get in our way of making good decisions...God has given us desires, and when He made creation...He also gave us the answer our desires...God wants our desires to be answered in a holy way...If we are hungry, the LORD wants us to eat...If we have a sexual desire, He wants us to love our spouse...If we are thirsty, we should get a drink...The evil one uses these desires and pleasures to his advantage, if we do not do them in a holy way or do not control them...The evil one wants man to think he (man) is in control...Some men do not even know we need the Father and Son...The flesh is weak...We need Him to help us make our decisions...However, since we want control, we often make bad decisions...This is what the man of lawlessness wants...We often do not want God to have control or take control of our lives...
In closing St. Paul tells us that the Father and Son love us...May we pray that the grace of the Father give us eternal encouragement and good hope, and encourage our hearts, that we may strengthen our deeds, our words, and in the daily choices we make...