Deeper ReflectionIN THE NARRATIVE OF THE ANTICHRIST IN 2 THESSALONIANS 2
is the battle between “the truth” and falsehood and deception – the
contradiction and counterfeit of the truth (2 Thess 2:3, 9-12). The truth is
the Gospel, for people are to believe the truth “so as to be saved” (v.10).
And “the gospel of God” is “the word of God” (1 Thess 2:9, 13). Indeed, the
whole Bible is “the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1-3).Unbelievers are “perishing” (v.10) and “condemned” (v.12) because they
“refused to love the truth” (v.10) and “did not believe the truth” (v.12).
When unbelievers “refused to love the truth”, it means they “did not
accept a love for the truth”
10 and they “had not only not ‘welcomed’…this
truth, but had no liking for it, no desire to possess it”
11. The expression
“love of the truth” is found only here in the whole New Testament. “The
fuller expression of ‘love of the truth’ goes beyond the idea of accepting
the Gospel on an intellectual level as something that is factually true or
accurate, moving deeply to a passionate, emotional attachment to the
Gospel: one is personally and fully devoted to this truth.”
12It is theologically assumed that when a person “accepts a love for the
truth” and is “saved”, this love for the truth should
continue in his or
her life in following Jesus. Do we have “a love for the truth” – the Word of
God? Are we “moving deeply to a passionate, emotional attachment” to
the Word of God, and “personally and fully devoted to” it?
10 Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans, 2009), 294, footnote 85
11 Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Apollos, 2002), 323 – citing George Milligan
12 Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 1-2 Thessalonians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2014), 541-42