Matthew 24:10-12 “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”
I have read this verse so many times, and I would’ve said that I understood it. But as I read it this week, my eyes were open and I understood better what this passage is warning about.
In this chapter of scripture (Matthew 24) Jesus is asked by His disciples what the signs of the end times will be. He goes on to talk about increased hardships, persecution, political upheavals, natural disasters, and disloyalty. All of these things are to happen before the end.
I’ve always read these verses as separate events. At times I’ve looked around and thought “how in the world is that deception working on people?” or “there’s no way anyone would fall for that!”. What an ignorant thought those were.
According to these verses, there’s a sequential pattern of events leading up to false prophets. Do you see it?
First, many will be offended.
Then, betrayal of one another.
And hatred of one another.
THEN, false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Lastly, because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
It starts with offense. You see, when you have an offended heart you don’t always see things as they are. Your lens has become tainted and clouded by offense and sometimes can even cause us to imagine things, situations and scenarios that are not there.
When offense takes root and is not dealt with, and we start to believe things that are not true, we can easily step into betrayal out of self preservation. As offense festers, hatred can start to sound justified.
The next “phase” is false prophets will rise. When we allow offense and un-forgiveness to fester in our hearts, it creates a lens of offense with which we see the world through and clouds our vision and our hearing. Before you know it, you’re “prophesying” through pain. This is dangerous! if our lens is clouded with pain and offense, we start looking for things, people and even scripture to validate our pain, then you build a “message” around that pain.
As a result, many are deceived. Others who have also experienced similar hurt and offense feel validated in their bitterness and offense and you develop a “following” of people who have similar thoughts and beliefs as you all rooted in their offense. That’s how many are deceived.
The scriptures say the result of all of this is that lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold.
Lawlessness is from the word anomia which means illegality, violation of law, wickedness, or unrighteouosness.
Un dealt with un forgiveness and offense leads to violation of God’s law and unrighteousness. Often without even understanding what’s happening, we begin to live outside of God’s order of things, and the love of many will grow cold.
This word for love is agapē which is unconditional love that’s talked about in 1 Corinthians 13.
If you’ve never read 1 Corinthians 13, I encourage you to go do that! In that chapter we see the importance of agapē love towards people. It summarizes by saying if we have not love (agapē) for others it is nothing. All the “ministry”, prophesying, and understanding mean nothing if we don’t have unconditional love towards people.
My challenge to you today is to take some time in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and to reveal anywhere that it may have become hardened through offense. As He shines His light on things, begin to forgive one by one and release it to the Lord. You may run in to people or circumstances that are hard to face. Know that releasing forgiveness and offense does not make circumstances and situations ok or justified, but it does free you from your spiritual prison.
Next, ask the Holy Spirit if there any lies that you have believed about Him, yourself, or others around you as a result of that experience or offense. Lastly, ask Holy Spirit to heal your wounded or broken heart and help you to know the Truth.
Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who are crushed in spirit”.
As you’re walking through releasing offense and bitterness, and forgiving those who have wronged you, remember that Jesus suffered betrayal, slander, accusation, torture and ultimately death. He was betrayed by those closest to Him. He had the most to be offended at yet He prayed “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”. That is our Shepherd, the One we are called to be like in this world. Ask Him to help keep your heart tender and loving.
If you would like to dive deeper into this topic, I recommend The Bait of Satan by John Bevere. You can find the book here. They also have a free digital study guide on their app, MessengerX.
I pray this devotion blesses you and that you know the love of God in a deeper, more intimate way!
XO,