Jesus said, “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24:11).
There is no doubt that we live in an age of growing lawlessness.
People have grown accustomed to turning on the television and seeing someone brazenly stealing something, shooting someone, or shouting about the rights to do wrong.
It is part of the fallen human nature to want to break the law.
But, Jesus was talking about a condition relevant to the last days prior to his Second Coming, whereby people would be breakers of God’s Law, which has its basis in the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments: (1) No gods but God; (2) No idolatry; (3) No use of God’s name vainly; (4) Keep the Sabbath; (5) Honor your father and mother; (6) Do not murder; (7) Do not commit adultery; (8) Do not steal; (9) Do not lie about your neighbor; (10) Do not covet what your neighbor has.
Those are the Ten Commandments in a nutshell, which provides the basis for any city, nation, country, or even household, wanting to lead long and prosperous lives, generally speaking.
Who could possibly not want to lead a long and prosperous life? Apparently several.
Again, Jesus said lawlessness will increase and that will lead to their love growing cold, but toward who?
One, toward others than the individual.
The apostle Paul wrote, “But understand this, that in the last days there will comes times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self…” (2 Tim. 3:1-2).
Rejection of God’s Law ultimately leads to narcissistic behavior or something that has been deemed by a few as the “Me, Myself, and I” generation.
Who can possibly care about one’s neighbor, or even those within one’s household, when the focus of attention needs to be on “Me.” “Look at Me! I’m a ‘Social Influencer! I am so important!'”
No, you are a self-centered, narcissistic wretch that has no problem breaking God’s law, even if that means compromising your own dignity as a human being.
You go whoring after the world because you want to be a whore of the world, and that while assuming that there are absolutely no consequences of playing the whore.
You lie, you cheat, you steal, and that because your relativistic outlook on life has left you bereft of any moral, ethical, or spiritual character.
Two, towards God.
Jesus commanded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Matt. 22:37).
That is pretty much hard to do if a person turns his back on God’s Law or you falsely assume that you are your own little “god” that is above anything God might have said about right or wrong.
In fact, it is not possible to love Jesus by being a law breaker, since he was a law-keeper himself.
Interestingly, many law breakers wish to identify with Jesus, even though they do not have a clue about him, God, or the Bible, which is the only source of revelation about Jesus, God, or His Law.
So, they end up making false professions, mainly because they are false prophets who will claim one day that they did all kinds of seemingly wonderful things in the name of Jesus.
But, he will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).
Three, towards themselves.
Although the narcissist may “love” themselves, it is a fake love, mainly due to a wilful ignorance or disdain toward God’s law.
Such fake love ultimately leads to self-destructive behavior: illicit sex, drug abuse, alcoholism, hanging with tawdry crowds, getting involved in anti-Christian movements and causes, etc.
Ironically, being alone and apart from God, the lawless desperately seek relationships to deaden the presence of extreme loneliness and separation.
They become blind followers of the blind sheep, aimlessly wandering through life, thinking that by destroying everything and everyone else equally lawless, they will find meaning and fulfillment.
Such is the delusion behind a time on humanity’s horizon yet to come.
Which is interesting, since so many doomsday prophets, of the past and present, often overlook the lawlessness Jesus spoke about, as he pointed to the Ten Commandments, as one of the “Signs of the Times.”
We are living in those “times” right now, though, as both non-Christian and too many “Christians” do not want to have anything to do with lawfulness as guided by the Ten Commandments.
The “Christians” want to tout that the law has been done away with and that we now only have to live by grace and faith.
Is it any wonder that so many Christians and non-Christians preach an antinomian “gospel” rooted in “pride,” autonomy, and self-indulgence?
Is it any wonder that the “love” of those same preachers, many of whom play Church Leader on Sunday morning or carry the label of “Minister” elsewhere, is stone-cold dead?
Jesus said such lawlessness was just “the beginning of birth pains.”
And that is going to be one, frigid, anchor baby that no one is going to want.
