“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” -Matthew 24:12.
This single verse is descriptive of mankind's condition at the end of the world, and it should serve as a powerful warning for all of us today, both believer and non-Christian alike. What it means is that there is so much wickedness in our everyday lives surrounding us, that we lose our sensitivity toward it. We develop emotional callouses, and evil works no longer sting us as they once did-we may even JOKE about them! We begin confusing what is good for that which is evil, of which the Bible spoke long ago;
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” -Isaiah 5:20,21.
Jesus warned us of this trap long ago; it is easy to fall into, and almost no one intends for it to happen. Most of us will have a type of love for certain people, or things, but the coldness I'm sharing about here usually begins very subtley; it's like sanding down a sharp corner of the truth.
On January 28th, 1986, I was travelling for my job in south Boston when the space shuttle Challenger took off; I was listening on the radio when it exploded, and cost the 7 astronauts on board their lives. The build up to this launch was big in Boston; Krista McCaulif was on the flight, a teacher from nearby New Hampshire, so there was a connection that many were proud of...
It was only many years later, as the Lord was giving me back my sensitivity, that I realized the indifference with which I had regarded this event-my friends & I quickly began making jokes about it! How in the world can ANY Christian actually laugh about such a tradgedy? It was a terrible, hurtful event for the families of these astronauts and their many close friends, but we joked about it. Very thick callouses have built up on us over time to the point where such hurtful events effect us no more than a fly lighting upon us.
So the first effect of “love waxing cold” may be called insensitivity or indifference. This could be addressed by the scripture from Isaiah already mentioned. But a secondary effect of coldness logically follows the first, in where we start either to condemn the just, or to justify the wicked.
We can see the condemning of the just in the book of Job, when the friends of Job were blaming HIM for all the trouble that had come his way (Job 13:4, 16:2-5, 19:2)! You & I have the advantage of the Bible; we know that all was spiritually well between Job and God (2:3); that those who are glad at calamities will be punished (Proverbs 17:5); and similar events happen to good or bad men alike;
“All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean...as is the good, so is the sinner...” -From Ecclesiastes 9:2.
Yet the Bible gives us also an interesting example for “Justifying the Wicked” in the rebuke given to the Corinthians in I Corinthians 5. The believers here in Corinth had a man among them who was having intercourse with his father's wife, and he was accepted by the church, and even boasted about! What makes this example so interesting is that this church's practice displayed insensitivity toward the sin commited, but it was apparently done to brag about their tolerant love and acceptance for anyone.
“It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.” -I Corinthians 5:1,2. But the judgment God gave through Paul was anything but favorable;
“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth...But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat... Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” -I Corinthians 5:4-8,11,13B.”
So then the account given in I Corinthians 5 is an example of what Jesus warned us about in Matthew 24:12, where the love of God had grown cold toward iniquity. Further admonishment is found later on in Ephesians 5:11, which says;
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
The Bible directs us toward a simplicity of behavior, that if followed, will help to keep the love of God WARM within us; Romans 12:15 instructs us to;
“Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”
We must be willing to take the time to practice these instructions in situations that come our way, and Jesus reinforces this in John 11, when He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead...
Jesus knew that Lazarus would die, and His intention to raise Him up from the dead afterward. This is easy enough to see earlier in chapter 11 when Jesus testified that Lazarus' sickness was not for death, but for the glory of God (v.4); and how Jesus remained in the same location even after He was told of His friend's condition (v.6); how Jesus told His disciples that Lazarus was dead, and that He was glad for their sakes He hadn't been there (v.14,15); and how the Lord finally also encouraged Martha with promises of Lazarus rising from the dead (v.23-26).
In all that Jesus spoke, He was hinting of that great miracle He was about to perform, but how did He follow this up? Did He rebuke any for their lack of faith? Did He say anything like, “Cheer up! Everthing will be okay, I'm here-stop your crying!”
No, Jesus didn't say anything to “cheer them up,” nor did He scold them for want of faith. What He did was amazing; Jesus took the time to mourn, and comfort those around Him. Do we remember Matthew 5:4, when Jesus tells us that those who mourn will be comforted? Jesus did that here directly;
“When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!” -John 11:33-36.
Pray that the Lord will give us discernment to escape the snare of His love waxing cold in our lives. Let us be grieved over calamities, or deliberate wickedness, and PRAY; not just letting it “roll off our backs.” Let us be slow in judgment (James 1:19), lest we end up condemning the just, and justifying the evil. We need to recall the scripture of contending for the faith (Jude 3) in our daily lives, for the warmth of God's love also extends into Holiness that we must stand up for. And let us patiently extend God's comfort toward others (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) by taking the time to either rejoice with them or mourn, as each case may warrant.
There is great darkness in the world all around us at this time in history, so let us strive by God's grace to shine as lights burning for the truth, beacons which illuminate the way to Christ.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” -Ezekiel 36:26.
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.” -Luke 12:35,36.
You may also want to check out my YouTube video on this subject at https://youtu.be/vtttZGZTk4U.
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