2 Thessalonians 2:13

God has chosen you (εἵλατο, another LXX expression, implying that Christians had now succeeded to the cherished priviliges of God's people) to be saved, instead of visiting you with a deadly delusion (10, 11) which ends in judgment (12); your discipline is of sanctification (contrast 12 b) and belief in what is true (contrast 11, 12 a), these forming the sphere and the scope (cf. 1 Timothy 2:15, and for ἐν ἁγιασμῷ in this sense Ps. Sol. 17:33) for salvation being realised. Those who are sanctified and who truly believe shall be saved. Cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 and Apoc. Bar., liv. 21: “in fine enim saeculi uindicta erit de iis qui improbe egerunt, iuxta improbitatem eorum, et glorificabis fideles iuxta fidem eorum”. πνεύματος may be either (a) = “wrought by the (holy) Spirit” (cf. 1 Peter 1:2), the divine side of the human πίστει, or (b) = “of the spirit” (cf. I. 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Corinthians 7:1), as of the heart (I., 1 Thessalonians 3:13). The absence of the article is not decisive against the former rendering, but the latter is the more probable in view of the context; the process of ἁγιασμός involves a love of the truth and a belief in it (i.e., in the true gospel) which is opposed to religious delusions (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:2).