In Matthew 24, the disciples of God ask him –

“...what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”1

Christ then details the events which will signal his second advent, and states that

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”2

The Gospel will be proclaimed as a testimony to all nations, but before this there will be a great time of tribulation. The situation will be dire. It will be so dire, in fact, that the love of many will grow cold. Christians will not fall away from Christ, for he promises that no man – and that includes ourselves – can pluck us out of his omnipotent hand.3 However, Christians can grow cold. Consider John Gill’s commentary on this passage –

And because iniquity shall abound... Meaning, either the malice and wickedness of outrageous persecutors, which should greatly increase; or the treachery and hatred of the apostates; or the errors and heresies of false teachers; or the wickedness that prevailed in the lives and conversations of some, that were called Christians: for each of these seem to be hinted at in the context, and may be all included, as making up the abounding iniquity here spoken of; the consequence of which would be,

the love of many shall wax cold. This would be the case of many, but not of all; for in the midst of this abounding iniquity, there were some, the ardour of whose love to Christ, to his Gospel, and to the saints, did not abate: but then there were many, whose zeal for Christ, through the violence of persecution, was greatly damped; and through the treachery of false brethren, were shy of the saints themselves, not knowing who to trust; and through the principles of the false teachers, the power of godliness, and the vital heat of religion, were almost lost; and through a love of the world, and of carnal ease and pleasure, love to the saints was grown very chill, and greatly left; as the instances of Demas, and those that forsook the Apostle Paul, at his first answer before Nero, show. This might be true of such, who were real believers in Christ; who might fall under great decays, through the prevalence of iniquity; since it does not say their love shall be lost, but wax cold.4

Just prior to the Lord Jesus’ return, things will get so bad that some Christians will grow cold in their love, losing their zeal for evangelism, as well as their desire for fellowship with the saints. Yet this causal relationship between the increase of wickedness and a decrease in love is not unique to the time period just before our Lord returns to judge the quick and the dead. Rather, it is a constant reality we often forget about, at least until time unfolds and we are face to face with it again.

Today, we are facing riots in every major city, where the smoke of burning police vehicles and historical landmarks rushes to blind us to the coronapoclypse myth’s decaying corpse. Cacophonous sloganeering deafens us to the sound of our economy collapsing, pastors caving to the wicked whims of Caesar, and “men” of God capitulating to the demands of the gender-fluid. The world and the flesh and the devil unremittingly call us to lay down our powerful spiritual weapons5 and pick up the carnal weapons they’ve forged against the true Triune God – scientism, critical race theory, statism, nihilism, hedonism, moralism. Indeed, as David declares –

On every side the wicked prowl,

as vileness is exalted among the children of man.6

We are being directed at every turn to be spiritually quarantined, lest we become infected with unbelief and suffer despair, hopelessness, and embitterment.

But if we do not come into contact with these things, how will we build immunity against them? How will we develop spiritual antibodies if we cave and abdicate our calling in Christ?

Counterintuitively, it is precisely these spiritual attacks on us that God uses to conform us more and more to the image of his beloved Son. James 1:2-4 states as much, declaring –

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Not only this, but these attacks also serve to humble us and draw attention away from us, while simultaneously underscoring the truth of the Gospel and the power of God. As Paul declares in 2nd Cor 4:7-18 –

…we have this treasure [viz. The Gospel of reconciliation] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

What is, on the one hand, distressing and painful to see and hear, is yet, on the other hand, the very means whereby we grow in Christ and become better equipped to face future trials that may be even worse. Therefore,

...let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.7

We will reap a harvest of confidence in our Lord’s Sovereign direction of all that ever has happened, is happening, and will happen. And we will be further equipped to love our brothers and sisters in Christ who will experience what we have already experienced and, by the grace of our God, have overcome.

Press on, brethren.

Press on.

Soli Deo Gloria.

1 Matt 24:3b.

2 vv.9-14.

3 cf. John 10:27-30.

4 Emphasis added.

5 cf. Eph 6:10-18 & 2nd Cor 10:3-6.

6 Ps 12:8.

7 Gal 6:9.