The Love of Many Shall Wax Cold

"The Love of Many Shall Wax Cold" – Matthew 24:12 "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." It is a prophetic warning, and the expositor takes it as the direct continuation of the chapter on love she expounded the week before. Evil does not diminish: it grows, because it feeds the ego. And when evil grows, love goes out like a fire doused with all the water that can be thrown on it. But the text does not stop at the diagnosis: five passages teach practically how to keep the fire from going out —abiding in Christ, praying without ceasing, guarding brotherly love, not growing weary in well doing, and keeping the heart clean.

I. The warning: evil grows

A. This teaching is prophetic: Jesus reveals a spiritual reality, that growing evil has the power to make the heart cold.

B. Evil does not diminish, it grows. Evil is easier because it satisfies the ego and expresses through actions what we do not dare say to anyone's face.

C. There is no use hoping the times will improve or that politics will fix anything. What used to be evil is today "not so bad".

D. Coldness enters slowly: one excuse not to gather, another not to pray. The enemy does not attack with shouting, but with small distractions, spiritual weariness, discouragement, and routine.

E. Everything is paid for on earth: the attitudes, the rudeness, the conceit, the showing off, the "nothing is happening". And one day we leave this earth, and on that day there is no time to turn back.

II. What it means for love to grow cold

A. "Wax cold" means to go out like a fire. And a fire must not be left with even one spark quenched: a smoking flax will burn again if you blow on it; but if all the water possible is thrown on it, it drowns.

B. In the Scriptures love is compared to something that burns, that lives, that drives toward kindness. Without love, nothing drives toward kindness.

C. Cooled love produces indifference: someone falls and people step over him. Lack of compassion and mercy, loss of interest in what is right, less sensitivity toward God and toward the neighbor.

D. "Let us not be weary in well doing": there is love. When a person stops doing good, he has already grown cold; he supplies the reasons himself, and the bitterness is already inside, because bitterness is easier than love.

E. Loving is hard because we love what suits us, not what hurts. But we must love what hurts: Jesus gave Himself until it hurt.

F. Coldness is inherited: the absence of love is what we leave our own. And it shows first in what is closest —at home, in the way each morning is handled— which is where it first turns into cruelty.

G. Matthew 24 speaks especially of those who said they loved God: people once faithful, compassionate, who served and sought God, and who over time, under pressure or through the influence of sin, grew cold. That is death in life.

III. Remedy 1 — Abide in Christ (John 15:4-7)

A. Jesus compares the spiritual life to the vine: the branches depend entirely on the vine to live and to bear grapes. A branch that separates dries up and bears no fruit.

B. To stop reading the Bible, stop gathering, stop praying, is to have left Christ, even while still speaking like a believer. And if Christ does not live in us there is no Holy Spirit, and nothing to convict us.

C. "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). All spiritual life, power, and peace come from Him, not from us; growth does not come from our own capacity.

D. Whoever abides bears much fruit, and it shows: in what he says, in his face, in his bearing, in what he fights for and what he seeks. Good flows from him toward others.

E. A separated life becomes barren: it builds nothing, works no miracles, does good to no one; and the believer loses direction, peace, and purpose, not knowing why he exists.

F. Beware of confusing carnal fruit with spiritual fruit: teaching so that people prosper meets human needs, but it is not the fruit that has reward in heaven.

IV. Remedy 2 — Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

A. "Pray without ceasing": to cease is to stop doing it. It does not mean being on your knees all day, but keeping a heart in continual communion with God.

B. The problem that does not get solved is usually the one that is not prayed over. And if the first is not settled, the second and the third pile on, each one harder.

C. Prayer is a way of life: total dependence, continual trust, seeking His guidance and His peace; not giving up when the answers are slow.

D. Jesus Himself withdrew to pray with the Father, because the cross He had to carry was heavy. And our own struggles are carried on our knees, even when the body hurts.

E. God did not create people separate or detached. Jesus could have done everything alone, and yet He chose twelve, taught them, and sent them: He chose multiplication so that every generation would have God.

F. There are common favors, ordinary ones that anyone can do; and there is something that springs from the heart and moves the third heaven, and then heaven moves its hand toward the earth and saves, heals, or works miracles.

V. Remedy 3 — Brotherly love (Hebrews 13:1)

A. "Let brotherly love continue": it must be kept alive and not allowed to go out with time, which is what it naturally tends to do.

B. Brotherly love is the love among brothers in Christ: support, respect, compassion, and mutual care in the congregation. It is an essential part of the Christian life.

C. The charge to the church: keep loving; allow no divisions; do not let pride cool the relationships between comrades in battle; keep a kind and sincere manner.

D. Do not lose the sense of spiritual family, so that the church is strong and decisive in the battle; because the fight is not against a mortal, but against principalities and powers.

VI. Remedy 4 — Do not grow weary in well doing (Galatians 6:9)

A. Paul says it because he knows that we mortals grow weary of doing good. You helped once, you were repaid badly, and you decide never to help anyone again.

B. But the blessing was in the moment you did the action that was yours to do; the one who rewards is God, not the one who received.

C. Do not grow weary of helping, serving, loving, forgiving, being patient, and continuing to do what is right even when others do not value it.

VII. Remedy 5 — A clean heart (Ephesians 4:31-32)

A. What is put away: bitterness —stored memories and wounds that affect the spirit—; wrath —inner irritation—; anger —the explosion of that irritation—; clamour —harsh arguments and hard words—; evil speaking —slander, gossip, insults—; and malice —bad intentions and the desire to wound.

B. What is put in their place: being kind —gentle, soft, respectful—; tenderhearted —understanding and helping even the one who fails—; and forgiving —releasing the offense and not keeping it.

C. The measure of forgiveness: "even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you", freely, without resentment and without keeping accounts.

D. To know the good and not do it is also sin; so no one can claim to be doing everything right.

VIII. Application

A. Examine your indifference: think how many people who ought to matter to you no longer do.

B. Do not let the smoking flax go out. If a spark remains, blow on it: return to the reading, to the gathering, to prayer.

C. Love what hurts, not only what suits you.

D. Begin at home: the way you treat those closest to you each morning is where love is first measured.

E. Keep doing good even when you are repaid badly; your reward does not come from the one who receives.

F. Ask forgiveness every day, as the Lord's Prayer teaches; that is where new things begin, and whoever flogs himself never gets up.