Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:9–12 — “they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”
In The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895), Gustave Le Bon argues that people in crowds can become especially suggestible: emotions spread through contagion, repeated assertions gain force, and belonging can weaken independent judgment.
This offers a useful lens for 2 Thessalonians 2:9–12: deception can become compelling through social influence, yet Paul identifies the deeper danger as refusing to welcome the love of truth.
1. Truth is not welcomed — (v. 10). The word Paul uses here is “people do not embrace the love of the truth.” Paul does not say they lacked evidence. He says they did not welcome or cherish the evidence. They did not have intellectual hurdles, but more of a moral or volitional hurdle. Their heart is not willing to embrace the truth. They know the truth, but they do not welcome the truth because the truth would come with a demand to change their life, and it is too uncomfortable. They do not welcome the truth about sin, about hell, about the exclusivity of Christ, about repentance, about the scriptures’ authority in every area of life and about the cost of discipleship.
2. Deception gains influence — Satan as the father of deception and lies, uses “power, signs and wonders, and wicked deception” to reinforce falsehood (vv. 9–10). He works through the man of lawlessness, who vividly communicates defiance, opposes God, tramples on God’s law, and attacks anything God created: order, marriage, morality, etc. He exalts himself and claims divine status (v. 4). Deception is powerful and it works through signs, and wonders. A lie is powerful, because it is comfortable. It promises belonging to the crowd. It gives us comfort. It makes us feel good. It reinforces our false self-acceptance. It affirms our sinful behaviors. It confirms that we do not need to change, that we are good as we are. Lies are leaving us unchanged. Deception is making the terminally ill believe that he is okay. The powerful messages of lies are overflowing us through the mass media’s deception and the manipulation of the crowd. Jesus saw the crowd as they were: lost, deceived, rejecting the narrow path of truth. Once people do not welcome the love of the truth, they open their heart and mind to deception.
3. Judgment deepens delusion — rejecting the truth always comes with consequences. We go deeper and deeper into deception. God sends a powerful delusion so that people keep believing in the lie (v. 11). God turns them over to the lies they so wished to have and to live by.
4. Deception, lies, and unrighteousness become desirable. They find pleasure and joy in deception. People take pleasure in unrighteousness rather than believing the truth (v. 12).
↺ The cycle reinforces itself — Delight in unrighteousness can further weaken openness to truth, making deception more attractive.
When a crowd makes a lie feel compelling, will we love truth enough to resist it?