Matthew 24:12-13 “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (13) But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”
But there is another influence that will cause the falling away to occur in the last days, and that is the influence of lawlessness that will increase in the earth. For as quoted in the above passage of scripture our Lord said that, “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold”. When our Lord made this comment, He was referring to the love of believers and not the love of those in the world. For the word translated “love” in this passage, is the Greek word “agape”, referring to the love of God that has been poured into the hearts of believers. In other words, our Lord was saying that many believers will experience their love for God growing cold in the last days. Our Lord said that the reason this would happen is because lawlessness would abound. Most have thought that our Lord was referring to an increase in crime in the earth that would cause the love of the saints to grow cold. But although there is an element of truth in that interpretation, that is not really what our Lord was referring to in this passage of scripture, for whenever scripture refers to “lawlessness” it refers to sin, because lawlessness is sin (1 John 3:4). In other words, our Lord was teaching us that because sin will abound in the last days that the love for God, of many believers, will grow cold.
Michael E.B. Maher
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