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follows upon wilful perversity and obstinate unbelief. God sends, not shall send (Authorised Version), still less "permits to be sent." It has the full force of the vivid prophetic present, "a working of error," i.e., a working in them which issues in the increasing destructive power of error; the hardening of Pharaoh's heart is the parallel which suggests itself. It lies in the nature of God's moral government and in the moral constitution of man, that sin, indulged, weakens the strength of resistance, and so invites and prepares the way for the more frequent and violent assaults of temptation. Thus yielding to sin receives at last its punishment in the slavery of sin. The working of error has its aim in this that they should believe the lie, as opposed to the truth just indicated. Man must believe something — if not the truth, with all the blessings which its reception brings, then the lie of the devil with the doom pronounced upon it. Unlike the Thessalonian believers who had "every desire of goodness," who had their pleasure in goodness, and their desires ever reaching forth towards its increase (2 Thessalonians 1:11), these unbelievers have their pleasure in evil. They have said to it, "evil be thou my good." Hence with "the son of perdition," whose adherents they are, their end is destruction.

(J. Hutchison, D. D.)

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KJV: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

WEB: Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;