Recognizing a man of lawlessness
A traditional doctrine is that we cannot identify the man of lawlessness until after the rapture. If that were true then what is Paul talking about here:
2Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
We can identify all defilement of flesh and spirit and we can cleanse ourselves of these. If believers did this there would be no way for "the man of lawlessness" to hide from them.
2 Open your hearts to us: we wronged no man, we corrupted no man, we took advantage of no man.
What do you think lawlessness is? You wrong others, you corrupt others and you take advantage of others. Sinners think this is funny, they think it is wisdom. When you get saved and your conscience is activated you see this as sin and want to cleanse yourself from this.
The mask mandate wronged small businessmen, putting them out of business. It wronged school children who need to see faces for cognitive development, it wronged school children who wore a mask for 8 hours straight increasing respiratory illness and increasing CO2 levels in the blood.
Everything about the pandemic corrupted men. People were bribed to lie. Hospitals were bribed to say people "died with Covid" to boost the numbers. Talking heads on TV were corrupted, government officials were corrupted, health care workers were corrupted, school boards and union leaders were corrupted.
They also took advantage of people, firing people who didn't take the vaccine. It was an experimental vaccine, by law they can't mandate it if Ivermectin and HCQ are effective treatments. They lied about those and prohibited the use. They forced people to use Remdesvir which caused organ failure. They put people onto ventilators which was essentially a death sentence. They put sick people back into nursing homes to increase the number of infections and death.
5 For even when we were come into Macedonia our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
If you questioned them about these laws you were attacked, deplatformed, ridiculed, dragged out of church or out of the business, and slandered. Meanwhile in the church many people were filled with fear, accusing others of being terrorists, or trying to kill them, etc.
We need to wash our hands and face to cleanse ourselves of all defilement of the flesh and spirit. Throw out the TV. Be very careful about what you see and what you hear. If you feared God you would not watch or listen to those things and as a result you would perfect holiness, being able to discern when you are being manipulated by evil forces.