“Love... [can] grow cold” for many lesser reasons than those which will characterize the “tribulation” of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 24.9-14. Pain can harden even the noblest of hearts and freeze the ready flow of love. Most of us have occasionally suffered the pain of misunderstanding and the loss of meaningful relationships. Our “tribulation” may be minuscule by comparison to real political persecution, but it still hurts. Sometimes we are seriously “offended” and shockingly ‘betrayed’ by people we thought were friends. You and I may know how it feels to be ‘hated’ for our beliefs. Perhaps we've had close associations with people who were eventually exposed as “false prophets,” or become the the victim of ‘deceit’ by those who claimed to be Christians.
The natural tendency when experiencing relationship brokenness is withdrawal and isolation. When our feelings are hurt, we are tempted to hide safely behind emotional walls and keep our distance from people who are bound to hurt us again. We may even decide that intimacy is not worth the risk of the inevitable pain it causes. The “lawlessness” of others can make our “love… grow cold.”
