Assignment:
- Read ALL of 2 Thessalonians for context.
- Read (or re-read Chapter 11 of Wiersbe's Be Ready.
- Answer all of the questions at the end of the chapter.
- Consider the following challenges and additional question below.
Additional question and challenges:
Challenge 1 (question)
Wiersbe’s gives an illustration of a friend filled with pride on page 154: Paragraph 4:
“Now you are somebody important!” “Worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.” This is Satan’s lie, and I fear it is what rules the world today. God originally made man in His own image. Today, man is making God in his own image.
- Q: Does anyone else struggle with this kind of pride?
- Q: Is anyone willing to admit it if they are struggling with this kind of pride?
Challenge 2 (question)
On Page 154, Paragraph 6, Wiersbe says:
The people Christ will judge not only do not love the truth, but they have “pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:12). Read Psalm 50:16–21 for one description of this kind of person, and also Psalm 52. The chief priests actually were glad when Judas promised to help them kill Christ (Mark 14:10–11).
Q: What are some examples of taking pleasure in unrighteousness in my life?
Challenge 3 (consideration)
On Page 154, Paragraph 5, last sentence, Wiersbe says:
I mentioned before that this process of believing the lie is described in Romans 1. The closing verse of that section (Rom. 1:32) states this truth clearly: “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
- This ought to give us great pause! They KNEW the judgment of God and still took pleasure in the vile sin that would one day render them to that eternal judgment!
- This tells me that sin is as incredibly compelling, as it is deceiving!
Challenge 4 (consideration)
Challenge 3 led me to review and study the idea of being deceived.
Do your own words study on "deceive" or "deceived" and consider whether or not you could ever be deceived by signs and wonders being performed before your own very eyes.
Consider Matthew 24:23-25 among the instances of "deceive" for this:
- To whom is He speaking or directing this warning?
- Why would Jesus tell us this ("Behold, I have told you before" (24:5)) if we all were not susceptible to the tactics of the enemy of our souls?
- Be careful! If we proclaim that we are impervious to Satan's cunning, we are probably nearer to being deceived than we realize. The caveat to that is of course, when we are walking with Christ, walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit (not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh), and totally depending on our God that way, then YES, we are unable to be deceived.