2 Thessalonians 2:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For the mystery of iniquity There is a mystery of iniquity as well as of godliness, the one in direct opposition to the other. The expression, a mystery, in the Scripture sense of it, is something secret or undiscovered. See note on Ephesians 1:9. The mystery of iniquity, therefore, is a scheme of error, not openly discovered, whose influence is to encourage iniquity. Doth already work Ενεργειται, worketh inwardly, in men's minds, or in the church, and perhaps also secretly. The seeds of corruption were sown, but they were not yet grown up to any maturity: the leaven was fermenting in some parts, but it was far from having yet infected the whole mass. To speak without a figure, the apostle means that the false doctrines and bad practices, which he foresaw in after times would be carried to a great height by the power which he denominates the man of sin, were already operating in the false teachers, who then infested the church. Accordingly, in his speech to the elders of the church at Ephesus, not long after this epistle was written, he told them, (Acts 20:29,) that grievous wolves would enter in among them, not sparing the flock; and that of themselves men would arise speaking perverse things, &c. And before he wrote his epistle to the Colossians, false teachers had actually arisen in Phrygia, who earnestly recommended the worship of angels, (Colossians 2:18,) abstinence from certain meats, and various bodily mortifications, (Colossians 2:21-22,) according to the traditions and doctrines of men. For the apostle wrote that epistle expressly for the purpose of condemning these idolatries and superstitious practices. To these things may be added an excess of reverence for pastors, and setting them up as heads of factions, 1 Corinthians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 3:22; the ambition of pastors themselves, and contending for rule and precedence, 3 John 1:9; errors in point of doctrine already promulgated, as justification by the merit of works, Galatians 2:16; external performances put in the room of faith and love; the having recourse to other mediators besides Christ Jesus, and various human inventions added to the written word. Only he who now letteth That is, restraineth, will restrain, &c. Chandler thinks this verse should be translated thus: The mystery of iniquity already worketh, only until he who restrains it be taken out of the way; that is, it works in a concealed manner only until then. The restraining here spoken of refers to the mystery of iniquity, as the restraining, mentioned 2 Thessalonians 2:6, refers to the man of sin. These were connected together, and were restrained by something which the apostle had mentioned to the Thessalonians, in his sermons and conversations, but which he did not choose to express in writing. This, as was observed on 2 Thessalonians 2:6, was generally understood by the fathers to be the Roman emperors and empire, as it is plain from Tertullian, who says, ( Apol., p. 31,) “We Christians are under a particular necessity of praying for the emperors, and for the continued state of the empire; because we know that dreadful power which hangs over the whole world, is retarded by the continuance of the time appointed for the Roman empire.” “To this conjecture,” says Macknight, “the fathers may have been led by tradition, or they may have formed it upon Daniel's prophecies. But, in whatever way they obtained the notion, it seems to have been the truth. For the power of the emperors and of the magistrates under them, first in the heathen state of the empire, and afterward when the empire became Christian, was that which restrained the man of sin, or corrupt clergy, from exalting themselves above all that is called God, or an object of worship civil and religious.” The reader must observe, the Roman empire, united under one powerful head, was extremely jealous of every other authority and power, and therefore was watchful to prevent the establishment of every such spiritual tyranny and usurpation as that by which Satan was attempting to make his grand effort against Christianity. It must be observed, however, that though the Roman empire, for several ages, restrained the progress of the mystery of iniquity, and the increase of the power of the corrupt clergy, by keeping the church under persecution, and curbing all authority but its own, and thereby retarded the establishment of the ecclesiastical tyranny here spoken of; yet, as Mr. Scott remarks, “the conversion of the Roman emperors to Christianity, in the beginning of the fourth century, tended greatly to prepare things for this apostacy, by giving scope to the ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics, and by multiplying exceedingly merely nominal Christians; but it was not till the subversion of the western empire by the northern nations, and the division of it into ten kingdoms, that way was made for the full establishment of the Papal usurpation at Rome, the capital city of the empire.”