The man of lawlessness

 This week's verses are 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4:

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God.

 In these verses, Paul is talking about the end of the world. Before Jesus returns, the Antichrist will appear and lead people away from God. In Paul's day, people were already talking about the end times, and there was even a heretical movement that claimed that they'd already happened. Paul sets all of that straight.

There are a few places in the Bible where the Antichrist is discussed, or antichrists, or the spirit of antichrist. It basically refers to the devil's manifestation on earth, setting himself up as the center of things, pretending to be a kind of savior in the midst of a kind of counterfeit religion. A lot of people speculate on when he will appear, or who he might be, but nobody knows. Anyone who says they do is probably exaggerating to get attention or money.

What Paul describes when he talks about the Antichrist sounds a lot like our modern world view. Culturally we no longer defer to God as a power above all powers. We don't put anything above ourselves. We put ourselves in that highest place. In the place where God should sit, as the moral absolute power, we substitute human reason and our own preferences and desires.

Instead of being under the reign of God, instead of submitting ourselves to him, we make our own rules. We pick and choose the pieces of his law we obey and we pick and choose when we extend grace when people fall short. That is lawlessness and rebellion. We are false gods and false messiahs to ourselves.

Paul talks later that before the Antichrist comes, lawlessness will already be at work in the world. It is already at work in Paul's day. It is at work in us, in every area our lives that is not already submitted to God. In our sin and rebellion, we are preparing the way for the Antichrist.

God's rightful place is in the center of our lives. We, individually, and corporately as the Church, are God's temple on earth. If that temple is taken over by our own human reasoning or values, or some other spirit, it stands in opposition to God and usurps his rightful rule over us.

So this week, examine your life and ask if God is really the center. Is your family, or your career, or your dreams, or your politics sitting on a throne that belongs to God? Are your appetites drawing the focus of your worship away from Him? Find the areas of your life where lawlessness reigns and take some time to reconsecrate them to God in prayer.