Let no one deceive you

2 Thessalonians 2:3a

On the Lord’s Day, we learned of the comforting call to discernment that Paul has for the church in Thessalonica. Today, I want to focus our attention on one sentence from the passage that we looked at.

Let no one deceive you in any way. (2 Thess. 2:3a)

What can we learn from just this one sentence?

We can see that there are people who want to deceive Christians. They want us to doubt what we have received from God, specifically his Word. This attempted deception is deliberate. It is a work that they are actively engaged in because they are under a delusion (2 Thess. 2:11).

We can see that there is more than one way for a Christian to be deceived. In v2, Paul warns the Thessalonians against receiving every spirit or spoken word or letter that seems to be from the apostles. This is still true today. There is no end of false, or even just bad, teaching available to us today. There are still people claiming to speak from God who have no idea who God is.

We learn that we must actively be on our guard. Paul instructs the Thessalonians to let no one deceive them. This means we can’t be a passive people. We need to be engaged in the work of knowing the truth. Why? First, because the world presents truth as a moving target. Yet God’s word does not change (Matt. 24:35). Second, because we are a forgetful people. We forget what God has done in the past. We forget what God has said. We forget that he is unchanging.

And so I would commend to you the love of God’s word. It is living and active, a two-edged sword, and it always accomplishes what God intends. Find God in his Word so that no one will be able to deceive you. Love the truth that it reveals for it reveals Jesus to us.

I wrote this for my church’s weekly devotions and notices. You can find more writing like this here.