Matthew 24:12

iniquity Literally, lawlessness.

shall abound Translate, hath abounded.

the love of many Rather, of the many, i. e. of "the majority." Love or agapébecame the leading virtue and grace of the Christian life, yet this is the only instance of the word in the Synoptic Gospels, except Luke 11:42, "the love of God." The noun itself is not classical, and therefore lent itself the more readily to Christian use. But the thought connected with the word, "family affection," was beautiful before it was spiritualised by Christianity. The E. V. has two renderings, "love" and "charity," (see especially 1 Corinthians 13). The first seems to be too wide, the second too restricted, denoting a principal tendency or function of agapérather than agapé itself. The use of the word by our Lord to express Christian unity is itself prophetic. St Paul experienced this "coldness of love:" "at my first answer no man stood with me," 2 Timothy 4:16.