Deeper Reflection
IN 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?

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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