“The Love of Many”... the Wayfarer 4/9/16

“The Love of Many”

4/9/16

“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

(Matthew 24:12)

Matthew once more comes to the front and center, as I am drawn there, for the core basis of today’s message.

The last few of these messages have dealt, in part, with the place and time in which we find ourselves today.

Throughout them, I have attempted to enumerate the facts, as I see them, of where we stand in the eyes of our God, and where we stand in regard to His favor, or more correctly stated, why we are no longer to be found within that favor.

Those who have, for any amount of time, followed what I preach will know, without my having to repeat it, that I feel that we have entered into the “beginning of sorrows” spoken of by Jesus in the 8th verse of this passage.

I draw evidence of this from all I see both in the world at large, and from what is most prevalent in what is seen locally, and nationally in the society where I currently find my habitation.

Having previously, through several of these messages, covered many of the signs given us of the approach, and the final fulfillment, of those days that Jesus spoke of, I choose instead, today, to call attention in particular to that 12th verse, and the importance of what is found there.

“The love of many shall wax cold.”

It is that love, and lack thereof, that I intend to address today.

That love spoken of is both the love required of us by Christ for all of our fellow men, and the love, professed, for even the closest of family members that has waxed cold among us, though most will deny the fact of this having happened.

Paul, too, spoke of this lack of natural affection that so easily slipped into the lives of those ignoring the teachings of Christ Jesus in order to pursue the lusts and desires of a world in denial of Him.

 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, Amen. 

For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

And likewise the also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 

Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

(Romans 1:25-32)

This list of abominations, enumerated by Paul, is found, and holds great strength in this world and, particularly, in this nation today.

Again, though, it is not this entire list I choose to directly address, but one specific portion of it, that I feel allows for the remainder to take root, and exist.

It is that reprobate mind giving way to a lack of natural affection; what is more properly called love… which allows for each new generation to wander farther and farther from the knowledge and guidance given by previous generations, who gave us that guidance through the teachings found in our scriptures; and most specifically the scriptures containing the teachings of Christ himself.

It begins in the homes where that love is no longer seen by children being raised by day schools… instead of parents, being educated by any and all sanctioned by the state…instead of parents, finding the warmth and comfort needed from those to whom their care has been delegated… instead of parents, if found at all.

The meaning of the very word, love, has become distorted, and is unrecognizable to most because of its bastardization, to mean instead, physical lust, toleration of existence, and is deemed to be subordinated to the desires and needs of self that replace and supplant it.

Discipline, which is intended to be a part of that love, is held in disdain, and often interpreted as an abuse of the rights of the child to do, and have anything and everything it wishes, whether it is good for it or harmful if allowed to be tolerated.

In place of the love necessary to grow, things are routinely given in its place, sometimes at the behest of the child who has no idea of the harm those things cause, but want them because they are the most popular game as advertised on television, another of the things that has replaced that attention to their growth of body and soul, taking the place of that parent who exhibits no love by the abandonment of it to an invention  that allows them, instead to pursue their own things, holding more importance to them than the proper education and guidance of that child.

As the child grows, things become more important to it than people, more important than relationships, and a vicious cycle continues demolishing any semblance of morality that could have been instilled.

Those relationships become expendable, and the things that replace them are the desires for immediate gratification, instead of a willingness to both take and share responsibility for more than the mere provision of those things.

Love has waxed cold because it is not being given.

It is not being given, because it is not in the possession of those professing to give it to begin with.

In order to give, or show that love, it must first be held by the one giving it. You cannot give that which you do not have.

To have that love, one must first comprehend the meaning of the word, again well defined by Paul in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, but far better defined by Jesus throughout his ministry and best exemplified by means of the statement made in the 15th Chapter of John, and that often quoted 13th verse, and later exhibited by Him through the willingness to hang on a cross in agony so that we too could partake of that love.

I go back and call attention to that verse once more with which I opened, and to one word in particular that still leaves the door open for hope, that word is many.

Jesus did not say that that love would wax cold for all, but continued in the next verse to provide that hope:

“But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.”

(Matthew24:13)

The love that is required for us to have, both for family and all man is still available, and may still be given, with the understanding of the prerequisite to first have it ourselves.

Lip service, or the mere profession, of that love is only further evidence of the lack of its possession, and is unacceptable, ineffective and intolerable in those who would profess Christianity.

To attain it, there is a need for sacrifice, that already given by Jesus and the one who would possess and share it.

To attain it, one must first recognize the fact that one does not have it, and then come to it by means of the redemption given through repentance that allows it to exist within us as well.

Jesus continues in the passage I opened with to give warnings of the perils to be faced by those of us who are here and alive during the times described.

As I said, I believe we have already entered only the beginnings of those times, and there is far worse ahead for those, who cannot, or will not find their way to that love, and hold on to it enduring to the end.

Even those having that love will not find it returned by those, being given it that has none already within them to give. This makes that endurance all the more difficult as we progress toward the time predicted, and that beyond, when those who have endured, and have that love, will experience a love far greater than any we my hold while in this physical body, while those who have not found that love, will never find it, but will be forever separated from that same love.

I close, once more in prayer for all who are still searching, all who are still willing to find it, that love be found, shared, and that, that endurance also is to be found, in both heart and soul at the time it is examined during the Judgment yet to come.

I remain, yet, still and always, that simple sinner saved by grace through faith in that very love, still, yet, and always, the soldier I was chosen to be as well, wielding the sword of that love with each opportunity given, giving no quarter, and expecting none in return until it is given at that Judgment.

2 Timothy 1:12 ¹²For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer