Many people are familiar with the idea that the Bible tells us “the love of many will grow cold”. I have long been aware of the verse and kind of just assumed that Jesus was referring to some future event people could use as a sign before His return and that was about it. Here is Jesus speaking in Matthew 24.
Matthew 24:12 (NKJV Strong’s)
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
What I had missed with this verse is there is a definite cause and effect relationship being presented by Jesus. He tells us that it is because of lawlessness that love grows cold. I did a little digging into this and found an interesting lesson. The Greek word for “grow cold” is based on the idea of blowing on something hot to cool it off. The picture in my head upon discovering this was a hot bowl of soup which has to be cooled before eating. When eating hot soup, I’ll bring a spoonful up to my mouth and blow on it before tasting.
That is the picture Jesus chose to illustrate the effect lawlessness can have on our love. This is true today and has always been true. This isn’t something new that will happen before Jesus’s return. It will be more prevalent before He returns but the principle always applies. Lawlessness can dampen love. Don’t let this happen to you. Don’t let lawlessness or chaos or wickedness affect your love for God or your love for your fellow man.
It isn’t enough however to simply not let your love grow cold. Another mental image I had upon thinking about cooling my soup is how I light a fire. We have a fireplace in our living room and on the same kind of chilly winter day when I like hot soup, I also might light a fire. When lighting a fire, I get the kindling lit and then blow on the embers to produce a flame.
Isn’t it interesting that blowing on soup cools it while blowing on embers ignites it into flame? Since we know now that lawlessness produces a wind that can cool your love, make the decision to use that wind to ignite a fire within you instead. Don’t let it cool your love. Don’t let chaos, violence, or any form of lawlessness push you away from love but rather stoke the embers of God’s love which has been poured out into your heart (see Romans 5:5). There is too much as stake, the world needs you.