Lawlessness

Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold…Matthew 24:12

In His answer regarding the signs of the last days, Jesus warned about the effects of lawlessness. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold; Matthew 24:11-12. We have seen this. We have witnessed the destruction of people and property over the last few years from anarchy. Jesus was right. When lawlessness abounds, love will grow cold. Cold-hearted people will kill and destroy.

It is John who defines lawlessness biblically: Sin is lawlessness; 1 John 3:4. It is John who makes the connection between love and sin. Or, should we say, the disconnection between love and sin. It was love that took away our sins, verse 5: And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. John is of course speaking of Jesus. Those who reject love remain in their sins. They remain disconnected from God.

To better understand the world in which we live, John writes verse 8: He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Love has reconnected you to God through Jesus. Sin disconnects. Love connects. You have been reconnected to God, verse 9: whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 

This is a spiritual reality. Those who practice lawlessness will be rejected by Christ, Matthew 7:23: And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Eventually, Jesus will gather the lawless for judgment, Matthew 13:41. Meanwhile, we have been warned.