March 19
“And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)
Jesus indicates to us that in the latter days, most people’s love will grow cold because of lawlessness. I take this to mean that because of the sinfulness of the people in the world and the disregard they show to the Word of the Lord or even perhaps to the laws of man, the love of Christians will grow cold. I don’t think Jesus is speaking of the world’s love, because their love toward God is minimal to non-existent to begin with. I think Jesus is speaking of Christians who are affected and infected with a general disregard for God because the world’s standards have sunk so low.
I don’t know about you, but I think this describes us today to some extent. The way immorality is paraded openly in the media, the way evil has become good and good has become evil in today’s culture in my opinion is having a chilling effect on Christians. Our standards are lower, our conversation is less edifying, our interest in spiritual things is waning, and false teachings that would at one time be rejected and discarded are now being embraced. It seems to me that our ability to discern good and evil, truth and error, is eroding quickly.
What would have been offensive and shocking to Christians twenty or more years ago now seems to be accepted practice. Disobedience to the clear commandments of scripture in years past would have gotten comments and rebukes but now goes ignored. By not wanting to give offense or out of a legitimate concern about not being too judgmental or condemning I believe we have become offensive to God by not speaking up about sin. And we are hurting others and ourselves as a result. Our love is growing colder with each compromise, with each indulgence, with each silence in the face of sin.
How do we combat this? How do we ensure that we are not the ones whose love grows cold? Well, for starters, we need to understand what is going on. We need to realize that we have fallen from somewhere. We need to regain the picture of what zeal for the Lord looks like. What do people do who are zealous for the Lord? What do people do who love the Lord and His word more than anything else? Where are we compromising His word today? Where are we not speaking out? Where are we accepting and making excuses for ourselves and others who are obviously not obeying the clear commandments of scripture? Where are we lax in our pursuit of holiness? What have we become comfortable with that we would be ashamed of if the Lord were in our midst? What would we be spending our time on if we knew the Lord would return at 6:00 tomorrow morning, for example? How many people have we shared the gospel with lately? Are we concerned about and burdened for these things?
Understanding what love and fervor for the Lord really looks like and examining our lives in light of this standard is a good start to rekindling a zealous love for the Lord. Praying daily that we would always be characterized by a deep and earnest love for the Lord is also key, I believe, to achieving this aim. We can’t in our own strength and human determination achieve a zealous love worthy of Him, I don’t think. We need Him to put His love in us and spur us on to greater and greater love.
Tomorrow we will examine a few other things that may help us avoid a cold love.