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3. ἡ γὰρ παράκλησις ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐκ πλάνης οὐδὲ ἐξ ἀκαθαρσίας οὐδὲ ἐν δόλῳ. For our appeal (is) not of (does not proceed from) error, nor from impurity, nor (is it made) in guile. Παράκλησις may denote any kind of animating address (see 1Co 14:3; 1Ti 4:13; Act 13:15), then the encouragement which such address gives (2Th 2:16; 2Co 1:3 ff., &c.); here it is not “exhortation” to those already Christians, but “the appeal” of the Gospel to those who hear it; it includes the totum prœconium evangelii (Bengel). It corresponds to διδαχή (Chrysostom’s gloss, as in Rom 6:17, &c.) or διδασκαλία (2Ti 3:10) on one side—“from both of which it is distinguished as being directed more to the feelings than the understanding” (Ellicott)—and on another side to κήρυγμα (2Ti 4:17); it always contemplates the benefit of those addressed: cf. for παρακαλέω in like connexion, Act 2:40; Luk 3:18; and for other uses of the verb, 1Th 2:11 below, and 2Th 2:17. The writers deny that they had been actuated by delusion or by impure motives (in other words, that they were either deceived or deceivers), or that they acted in crafty ways: ἐκ points to source, ἐν to manner of proceeding.
Πλάνη signifies (objective) error, as in 2Th 2:11; Rom 1:27, &c.,—the opposite of “the word of the truth of the gospel” (Col 1:5; cf. 2Co 4:2; 2Co 6:7; Eph 1:13; 1Jn 4:6; 2Th 2:10-13 below); ἀκαθαρσία, (subjective) personal uncleanness. The latter expression commonly implies bodily defilement, as in Rom 1:24, &c., and may have this reference here; but the term, on occasion, includes μολυσμὸς πνεύματος as well as σαρκός (2Co 7:1). There is no hint anywhere else in the Epistles that St Paul was taxed with fleshly impurity; and uncleanness of spirit (sordid and mercenary aims, the αἰσχροκερδία of 1Ti 3:8, &c.) seems more to the point here. Against this reproach the Apostle jealously guarded himself (see 2Co 11:7-12; 2Co 12:14-18); possibly he is taking the word ἀκαθαρσία in this passage from the mouths of his gainsayers. In classical Greek it denotes moral foulness, dirty ways, of any sort. Cf. note on 1Th 4:7; also 1Ti 6:5, where ἐξ ἀκαθαρσίας is recalled by διεφθαρμένων τὸν νοῦν, and ἐκ πλάνης by ἀπεστερημένων τῆς ἀληθείας. For ἐν δόλῳ, cf. 2Co 12:16; Mar 14:1; Joh 1:47.