The Effects of Lawlessness

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” -Matthew 24:12

The mark of the Christian, as Francis Schaeffer, expounding Jesus, explained, is love – love for God and love for our neighbors. This being so, it follows that the distinguishing mark of the Biblical worldview should also be love. People with whom we consort should be able to recognize that they have entered the hot zone of Biblical worldview by the love they experience in our presence. Everything about our demeanor and conversation should evidence this fundamental affection. We must not allow secondary matters – public policy issues, apologetic arguments, denominational differences – to gain the ascendancy over love as the defining factors of our lifestyle. These must be made to serve the purposes of love; they must not be allowed to override or obscure this most defining aspect of the life of faith.

We can know that our love is beginning to grow cold when secondary matters begin to be the most important foci of our worldview. When we find that we are so adamant of our own views that we have little interest in those of others, and little room in our lives for those who do not march to our drum, when we are critical of or indifferent to others, or when everything in our worldview ultimately reduces to a particular pet doctrine or cause, then we should begin to suspect that our worldview has lost its focus. We are then in danger of compromising our witness.

But these are merely symptoms of love gone cold. The root cause, as Jesus explained, lies elsewhere.

THE PROBLEM OF LAWLESSNESS
The law of God is the standard of holiness, justice, and goodness by which God intends people to live (Romans 7:12). It is the code of ethics which the Spirit of God is working to bring to expression in our lives (Ezekiel 36:27) and the outward manifestation of the New Covenant reality into which we have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:8-13). The law of God provides the path of true discipleship for all those who have taken up the cross of Jesus and are following Him (1 John 2:3-5; 5:1-3). When the Spirit is working in our lives and the promises of the New Covenant are coming to expression in us, then we will be found in obedience to the law of God, and love for God and others will be in evidence in all we do.

But in our day we are witnessing the fulfillment of Psalm 2, in which the nations and peoples of the world are working overtime to throw off the law of God – what they regard as His unbearable “bonds” and “cords.” What God intended in order to ensure the rule of kindness and love in human society (Hosea 11:4), human beings today regard as unreasonable constraints on their “liberty.” So they do not want their children to be taught the commandments of the Lord. They reject their use as judicial guidelines in the courts. They guard the public square like fierce watchdogs against any appearance of the Ten Commandments under the auspices of civil authority.

And we wonder why there is so little love in evidence among our fellow citizens? Why corruption, backbiting, self-centeredness, distrust, violence, and racial division are everywhere apparent? When a society rejects the only absolute standards which can steer them into social harmony, what else should we expect to find but lawlessness?

But before we get too critical of our unbelieving neighbors, we should take a closer look at ourselves.

THE PROBLEM BEGINS AT HOME
If only we in the Christian community could point to ourselves as models of lives obedient to the commandments of God. Researchers parade report after report before us indicating that those who profess faith in Jesus Christ reflect the morality of the world more than the love-code of God’s commandments. In a recent course on the Old Testament that I was teaching, each student was required to make an in-class presentation on some aspect of the assigned reading. One student, a teacher of small children in our church, began her presentation by asking every member of the class to take out a sheet of paper and write down the Ten Commandments in order. I looked around the class as the students fumbled for paper and pen. Every face suddenly drooped and nervous smiles flitted across their lips as they exchanged uncomfortable glances at one another. Not a single student was able to record the commandments in order, and several could not even think of them all.

This is not atypical. There are even segments of the Church today who boast that they have no need for the Ten Commandments or the law of God. They claim that simply following the Spirit as He leads enables them to live in love for God and others. So where is the evidence? And, if they’re really following the Spirit, as Ezekiel reminds us, would they not be walking in the law of God, working out their salvation according to the guidelines revealed therein (Philippians 2:12,13)?

Jesus said that, when lawlessness increases, love grows cold. If our love for Jesus, for His Father and Spirit, and our love for our neighbors are not self-denying, worship-producing, and mission-inspiring, then we are living lawless lives, playing at Christianity and misrepresenting the Biblical worldview. We neglect of the law of God where we should expect to see it most passionately embraced and obeyed, right here at home.

The problem of a lack of love in America today begins at home, among the members of the Christian community, where lawlessness in society has its roots in lawlessness among the followers of Jesus Christ. Who are the real enemies of love in our society? As the wise Pogo once observed, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

REKINDLING LOVE
The kind of love for God and others to which we are called as the followers of Jesus Christ will only radiate from us as we pursue holiness through obedience to God’s law (2 Corinthians 7:1). If you are among the vast majority of those who name Jesus as Savior and Lord and are indifferent to or neglectful of the law of God, then the place to begin in rekindling love is in repentance. Do you need a standard by which to measure the temperature of your love? Try these:

- Those who know and love the Lord delight in His Law and meditate in it day and night (Psalm 1:2).

- The righteous person has the Law of God in his heart, and all his steps follow in obedience to it (Psalm 37:31).

- The subjects of great David’s greater Son cry out, “O God, I love Thy Law!” (Psalm 119:97).

- Those who look to the Apostle Paul for guidance have, with him, established the Law as the righteous, holy, and good foundation of their morality; and they use the Law in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:31; 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8-11).

Rate yourself on each of the above statements using a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest rating. How do you fare? Are you part of the problem or part of the solution to the lack of love in our society? The place to begin in rekindling love is on our knees in repentance. We will never seek the love to which we have been called through obedience to God’s law unless tears of repentance become our daily fare because of the deplorable state of the law in our lives.

Second, memorize the Ten Commandments. Recite them to yourself daily. Turn them into a prayer that you use to call upon God for the love He has created you to know. Make a song of them and delight to sing it throughout the day. Burn the Ten Commandments into your soul until every sector of it – heart, mind, and conscience – begins to be shaped by that righteous and holy standard.

Meditate on the law of God as a part of your daily discipline of seeking the Lord. Consider ways that you might act on specific ones of the Ten Commandments with the people you will encounter throughout the day. Reflect on the various ways our society is circumventing and rebelling against the law of God, and make a point to comment on these to others. Talk to them about what our society might be like if God’s perfect standard of love were to be embraced and obeyed by all.

Ask your pastor to preach on the law of God.  Call for a Sunday school class on God’s code of love.  Volunteer to teach one yourself. Exhort your fellow Christians to renewed zeal for the law of God, and watch how your love for Him and for your neighbors will begin to be rekindled once again.

As strange and unlikely as it may seem, the way to restore love to our loveless society is to begin among those who know that God made us for love. The standards He has provided enable that love to flourish.  Love the law of God and you will discover that love for Him and for your neighbor actually begins to grow, as the Spirit, whose first fruit is love, empowers and enables you to live in conformity to the righteous, just, and good standards of the perfect law of liberty.

FOR REFLECTION
How did you do on the little exercise above? Where will you begin to rekindle hot love for Christ and others in your life? What opportunities for delighting in God’s Law and walking in obedience to it will you be presented with today?

T. M. Moore is dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of 20 books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet), and Culture Matters (Brazos). He and his wife and editor, Susie, make their home in Concord, Tenn.