In Matthew 24: 12, we find the 13th sign of our Lord’s return is “The love of many will grow cold.”
This is the only place in the Bible where we have this phraseology – the love of many growing cold. This phrase speaks of something that grows cold or becomes cooler when it is acted upon. The word picture here is what happens when we blow on hot coffee or hot chocolate or hot food to cool it down. Jesus said, when the love of many grows cold, that is the last straw so to speak. How does this happen? How does love grow cold? What kind of love is this?
There are four different Greek words for love.
- Agape – self sacrificing love
- Phileo – brotherly love
- Eros – the love-making kind of love
- Storge – the love parents have for their children or pet owners have for their pets. It’s the idea of loving someone who is very close to you, but it is a different love than the other three.
Which one do you think is the love in Matthew 24:12? The word for love here is the word agape. It is self sacrificing kind of love. It is the kind of love God expressed when He sent Jesus to die for us on the Cross. The kind of love we have when we really care for people; when we care for the right things. Jesus said, when this form of love grows cold we are near the end.
How does this happen? The enemy is often referred to as the chairman of the cold water committee. He loves to bring discouragement. He loves to take away our zeal. He is the one “blowing his cold wind” of discouragement over us to cool us down.
In Matthew 24:4, Jesus began this discussion with, “Take heed that no one deceives you.” What is the primary activity of the enemy? He is deceiver of the whole world. We see this in Rev. 12:9., he is referred to as the one who “deceives the whole world.” He deceives us in many ways. He even deceives those who worship him and think they are on his team. Remember, the Bible says, “he is the deceiver of the whole world.” Next time we will see see how he does this.