2nd Thessalonians Chapter 2 verse 7 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - For the mystery. "Mystery" here denotes something which was unknown or secret before it was revealed (comp. Ephesians 3:3-5). So also one of the names of Babylon, the seat of the antichristian power, is Mystery (Revelation 17:3). Of iniquity; rather, of lawlessness; namely, this apostasy which shall precede the coming of the man of sin. The genitive here is that of apposition - "that mystery which is lawlessness," whose essence and sphere of operation is lawlessness. Doth already work; or, is already working. The mystery of iniquity even now works in secret; but the man of sin himself will not appear until the restraining power be removed. Even at the time the apostle wrote the seeds of apostasy were already sown; the leaven of lawlessness was fermenting inside Christianity; the foundations of a false Christianity were being laid. Thus the apostle warned the Ephesians that false teachers would arise from among themselves; to Timothy he writes of those perilous times which were then present; and, in his Epistles, mention is made of false practices and doctrines, such as the worship of angels, abstinence from meats, bodily mortifications, and the honour conferred on celibacy. So also John, in his First Epistle, refers to this working of this antichristian power when he says, "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists .... Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world" (1 John 2:18; 1 John 4:3). "Antichrist does not step on the scene suddenly without any preparations; on the contrary, a stream of anti-christian sentiment and conduct pervades the whole history of the world" (Olshausen). Only he that now letteth; or, restraineth, the old meaning of the word "let." Will let. These words are not in the original, and ought to be omitted. Until he be taken out of the way. The whole clause ought to be rendered, "The mystery of lawlessness is already working, only until he who restraineth is removed;" when that takes place, when the restraining influence is removed, the mystery of lawlessness will no longer work secretly, but will be openly manifested.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) For.--Logically, the "for" belongs to the clause "he that letteth;" thus:" For, although the mystery is already at work, the wicked one will not be revealed until he that now withholds shall disappear."The mystery of iniquity doth already work.--Both "mystery" and "iniquity" have the article in the Greek, perhaps (as in 2Thessalonians 2:3) because the phrase was well known to the Thessalonians. Lawlessness is a more literal rendering than "iniquity"; the same word in 1John 3:4 is rendered "the transgression of the law." The word "mystery" in Greek does not necessarily involve any notion of mysteriousness in our modern sense. It means a secret (which may be, in its own nature, quite simple) known to the initiated, but incapable of being known until it is divulged. Here the whole emphasis is thrown, by a very peculiar order of the Greek words, upon the word "mystery." It may be paraphrased thus:--"For as a secret, into which the world is not yet initiated, that lawlessness is already at work." Thus the word "mystery" stands in sharp contrast with the word "revealed" in 2Thessalonians 2:6; 2Thessalonians 2:8 : the time for publishing, openly avowing, the secret is not yet come. To whom, then, is the mystery of that lawlessness now known? Not to all those who are contributing to its ultimate manifestation, for most of them are deceived by it (2Thessalonians 2:10), and, while sharers in the Apostasy, still believe themselves members of the Church. The mystery is known to God, and (1) to enlightened Christians like St. Paul; (2) to Satan and a few Satanic men who avow to themselves their real object in joining the movement. Though the mystery is said to work (the verb expresses an inward activity, e.g., 1Thessalonians 2:13, Romans 7:5, like that of leaven on the lump), it is not a personal thing, not (like "Man of Sin," "that which withholdeth,") a covert description of any person or set of persons; it is solely the unavowed design which is gradually gaining influence over men's hearts: it is the same movement as the "falling away" of 2Thessalonians 2:3. In several places (e.g., 2Peter 2:1 et seq.; Jude 1:18 et seq.) the coarser side of the "falling away" is spoken of, but here the "lawlessness" seems not so much to mean ordinary antinomianism as insubordination to God--rebellion. . . .