Read Verses: Matthew 24:9-14
Key Verse: Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,
Jesus speaks of a day coming when lawlessness will increase, and with this increase the love of many will grow cold. What a sad picture of our future. But it doesn't only have to be the future, there is a causal relationship here. Whenever a community or person increases in lawlessness, love decreases in warmth. Sin has an effect on people, it causes them to love less...it causes their love to grow cold. Perhaps we can see it today in the sense that we lose the ability to love each other deeply but find no problem in loving ourselves more. The world needs to remember how to love deeply...but they are trapped by sin.
Some people see this verse as a commentary on the church. Surely the cause and effect principle described here works with Christians as well. But hopefully Christians won't be the people whose lawlessness is increasing. I think this is a commentary on the surrounding culture, not necessarily the church...although the church can succumb to the same problem. Time after time Israel left God and God promised to heal the land if they returned. A few days ago we studied a passage from Revelations where the love for Christ has grown cold. This verse goes farther. The love of most grow cold. A world where people either have forgotten how to love each other deeply, or are unable to take love to its depths.
One commentator puts it this way "But real love is impossible for the lawless person. By definition the lawless person is motivated by personal, selfish concerns, not by any regard for others or for the rules that govern our intercourse with one another. So with the upsurge of lawlessness there is a cooling off of love. The one necessarily involves the other." Look around outside, do you see people with a depth of love for each other? Do marriages seem to be depots of love? Are families a safe place for children to be loved and learn to love? Does our justice system and its workers show a world of love and grace...or do law officers care more about rules than people. What a sad world we will live in when people forget how to love.
Fear not...God's love never grows cold. Where can the world go to find true love, deep love, love that is warm and open and freeing? It can go to Christ, they can go to his body, all can join the people of God who are called to imitate Christ. This is why its so important to love our enemies. Jesus knows that true love is what changes hearts. We need to show the extent of his love to others who are trapped in the clutches of lawlessness. We need to show them the way back to love. Our churches need to be places of love, where Christ is loved and so is everyone else.
Think of yourself as a huge signpost saying "True love available over there" with an arrow pointing to Jesus. Have you ever experienced the drawing power of the Love of Jesus? We need to keep the flames of true love burning in our churches. We need to have families others want to be a part of. We need marriages that can be testimonies to the permanence of true love. Again, prayer can be that lifeline that keeps us connected to Jesus in a love-giving way. Keep our love for Jesus alive, but then allow that love to fill us and overflow into the lives of others. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 Paul prayed for the young Christians to whom he was writing, that they might become more loving. What a great prayer this is for us to pray for each other! In fact, not only loving each other, but going out and loving the world...planting seeds of true love into hearts that have grown cold. Sow love...the fields are growing weeds of selfishness and lawlessness. Sow seeds of eternal love and wait for the harvest.
Jesus speaks of a day coming when lawlessness will increase, and with this increase the love of many will grow cold. What a sad picture of our future. But it doesn't only have to be the future, there is a causal relationship here. Whenever a community or person increases in lawlessness, love decreases in warmth. Sin has an effect on people, it causes them to love less...it causes their love to grow cold. Perhaps we can see it today in the sense that we lose the ability to love each other deeply but find no problem in loving ourselves more. The world needs to remember how to love deeply...but they are trapped by sin.
Some people see this verse as a commentary on the church. Surely the cause and effect principle described here works with Christians as well. But hopefully Christians won't be the people whose lawlessness is increasing. I think this is a commentary on the surrounding culture, not necessarily the church...although the church can succumb to the same problem. Time after time Israel left God and God promised to heal the land if they returned. A few days ago we studied a passage from Revelations where the love for Christ has grown cold. This verse goes farther. The love of most grow cold. A world where people either have forgotten how to love each other deeply, or are unable to take love to its depths.
One commentator puts it this way "But real love is impossible for the lawless person. By definition the lawless person is motivated by personal, selfish concerns, not by any regard for others or for the rules that govern our intercourse with one another. So with the upsurge of lawlessness there is a cooling off of love. The one necessarily involves the other." Look around outside, do you see people with a depth of love for each other? Do marriages seem to be depots of love? Are families a safe place for children to be loved and learn to love? Does our justice system and its workers show a world of love and grace...or do law officers care more about rules than people. What a sad world we will live in when people forget how to love.
Fear not...God's love never grows cold. Where can the world go to find true love, deep love, love that is warm and open and freeing? It can go to Christ, they can go to his body, all can join the people of God who are called to imitate Christ. This is why its so important to love our enemies. Jesus knows that true love is what changes hearts. We need to show the extent of his love to others who are trapped in the clutches of lawlessness. We need to show them the way back to love. Our churches need to be places of love, where Christ is loved and so is everyone else.
Think of yourself as a huge signpost saying "True love available over there" with an arrow pointing to Jesus. Have you ever experienced the drawing power of the Love of Jesus? We need to keep the flames of true love burning in our churches. We need to have families others want to be a part of. We need marriages that can be testimonies to the permanence of true love. Again, prayer can be that lifeline that keeps us connected to Jesus in a love-giving way. Keep our love for Jesus alive, but then allow that love to fill us and overflow into the lives of others. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 Paul prayed for the young Christians to whom he was writing, that they might become more loving. What a great prayer this is for us to pray for each other! In fact, not only loving each other, but going out and loving the world...planting seeds of true love into hearts that have grown cold. Sow love...the fields are growing weeds of selfishness and lawlessness. Sow seeds of eternal love and wait for the harvest.
Lord Jesus, fill us with a deep and abiding love for you. Cause that love to abound more and more and then cause that love to flow through us to others. This is our greatest need. Without your love living in my life, I am a banging gong or a clanging cymbal. Empower me to love you and others with your unconditional love. I want to love others as You have loved me, with a deep abiding supernatural all powerful encompassing love which drives me deeper into your presence. Make me not only a more loving person, but a person who sows seeds of love into the lives of people who have forgotten how truly wonderful true love is. AMEN
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