Because of the increase if wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Matthew 24:12-13

In 2004, my friends and I went to a local cinema to watch Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ. We arrived at the cinema in high spirits chatting away without a care in the world, but by the time the movie ended, I could barely stand up from my seat.  While others began to make their way out of the theater, I continued to sit in a numb and traumatized silence, shocked by the raw and violent scenes I had just witnessed. I was surrounded by a crowd, and yet felt completely alone as I reflected on what Jesus endured to show his love for humanity.

Our world is filled with endless examples of increased wickedness and love growing cold, but if Jesus could endure so much for us, how much more should we be willing to endure for others? Writing to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Anyone can claim to be a Christian, but Matthew gives us the true test in Matthew 24:13: “but he one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” One might ask, “Stands firm in what?” I would suggest, stands firm in faith, in hope and in love. Amid this growing “coldness,” Christ invites believers to “stand in the gap,” and to be “Jesus with skin on” to those who have been “forgotten, abandoned, and alienated.” Jesus calls us to be willing to pay any price necessary for the ”least of these” so that others might experience his enduring love for them. Jesus encourages believers to be selfless and to show up daily in the trenches of life just as he showed up for us at the cross.

The bonus for true believers is the gift of salvation which Christ has reserved only for those who “stand firm to the end”. Are you standing on solid ground? If you are, keep serving, let your goodness and love grow, and know that your salvation awaits.  That’s God’s promise.  Let us show the world we are Christians, not by our words, but by our love. It’s the perfect response to the environment we are living in today.