The Man of Lawlessness
1Now concerning athe coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our bbeing gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,1 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or calarmed, either dby a spirit or a espoken word, or ea letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that fthe day of the Lord has come. 3gLet no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, hunless the rebellion comes first, and ithe man of lawlessness2 is revealed, jthe son of destruction,3 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, kproclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For lthe mystery of lawlessness mis already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then nthe lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus owill kill with pthe breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by qthe appearance of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan rwith all power and false signs and wonders, 10and with all wicked deception for sthose who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11Therefore tGod sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe uwhat is false, 12in order that all may be condemned vwho did not believe the truth but whad pleasure in unrighteousness.
Stand Firm
13But xwe ought always to give thanks to God for you, ybrothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you zas the firstfruits4 ato be saved, bthrough sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14To this he called you through cour gospel, aso that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers, dstand firm and hold to ethe traditions that you were taught by us, either fby our spoken word or by four letter.
16Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, gwho loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hhope through grace, 17comfort your hearts and iestablish them in every good work and word.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.