I was reading through the latter chapters of the Gospel of Matthew today as part of the M’Cheyne plan. Oftentimes I breeze through these sections because the passages are so familiar, but today something caught my interest. In Matthew 24, Jesus is responding to his disciples’ question and concern: “What will the sign be of your coming and of the end of the age?” After describing various human and natural calamities, Jesus continues,
9 “Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. 10 Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:9-14 NRSVue (emphasis mine)
It was verse 12 that gave me pause. In Matthew, when Jesus describes the effect of lawlessness, suffering, and injustice of the last days, he says that the result will be that the love of many will grow cold.
I looked it up, and in all of the bible, this is the only time ψύχω psýchō, translated here as “will grow cold,” is used. When compared with contemporary usage, it means to cool by blowing or breath; like when one tries to cool off hot soup by blowing on it in a spoon. In the KJV, it is translated “wax cold,” which carries the image of a candle flame being extinguished and the hot wax slowly hardening.
The word for love here is agapē, which is often used to describe unconditional love. Even in the Gospel of Matthew (where love as the attribute of believers is not as emphasized as the Gospel of John) Jesus describes the mark of the faithful to be one of unconditional love. When injustice and hardship (lawlessness) come, our natural tendency is to protect ourselves first, and that tendency slowly, through habit and practice, becomes caring for ourselves only. Our love “will grow cold;” the fire and passion of agapē is extinguished and our hearts harden.
So in Jesus’ warning to his disciples, he says those who endure will be saved. I take this to mean that those who are watchful of themselves and their propensity to become defensive in heart — to think of the Christian life as a “culture war” or align it with theological tribalism or particular moral practice — are those who will be saved. While we may have our moral or personal convictions, it must not extinguish our call to unconditionally love.