Love and it’s opposite

Valentine is a season of love and love as we know means different things to different people.

For the records, I am not a fan of valentine neither do I believe in what it stands for. I very much believe in love and I believe we have to live in love, show love and reach out in love every other day not just on a particular day

Valentine somehow has become a season where our world celebrates lust in disguise of love hence the rationale behind this note - Love and it’s opposite. It is important for us to establish what love is and what love is not.

Love as we know is a very sensitive topic so I will try and stay within the confines of what we all can easily relate to so here we go.

A while back, I wrote a note “HATE- The worst disease the world”. I talk about how hate was the opposite of love and the cure for hate being love. I however quite recently read a devotional that talked about love’s real opposite.

The devotional said we might think that hatred is the opposite of love, but, love’s real opposite is lust.  Hmm lust! That got me thinking… so I decided to compare both so let see what love is and what lust is.

Everything in life stems from love! Either loving God or loving our neighbors but somehow in our imaginations, we often confuse love for lust and vice versa.

There are over a million definition of love but the best of them all comes from the Scriptures. According to 1 Corinthians 13, Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things and Love never fails!

So then, since love is all of the above, LUST will most certainly be the opposite of all of the above. So this is LUST:

Lust is impatient, lust doesn’t want to wait for anything, lust is jealous and envious, lust is boastful and arrogant, lust acts rudely, lust is self-seeking and self-serving, lust is easily provoked and offended, lust keeps a record of wrongs and brings them up later, lust rejoices in falsehood and unrighteousness and sin. 

Lust doesn’t bear with anything, it believes the worst about other people and situations, lust is not hopeful and it doesn’t endure.  And above all else, lust always fails- And it fails every single time.

Love can always wait to give, but lust can hardly wait to get.  Love is never self-seeking, but lust always places its selfish desires first.  Love is patient and kind, but lust burns with impatience.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  On the other hand, lust twists the truth and delights in whitewashing evil to make it look acceptable. And At the core of lust is selfishness, disrespect and a lack of self control.

The Bible says a lot about lust! The book of Proverbs particularly is full with so much wisdom for us young people and I want to urge us all to take time and study the book of Proverbs. There is so much wisdom in Proverbs that it almost impossible to lose your way after studying the book of proverbs.

The difference between love and lust is very clear and must not be misconstrued. Lust NEVER ends well, and that’s because it stems from a sinful heart.

True love is driven by a godly desire and it comes from a heart that has been totally surrendered to Jesus. God is love and love is God. Therefore we cannot know love, understand love, show love, or even fully receive love without God. True Love doesn't exist outside of God- HE is love!

An individual who doesn’t know God will always confuse lust for love whereas they are two opposite phenomena- never confuse both.

In conclusion, I want us to have a heart check. Are you in love? Do you genuinely love? If you find yourself wondering whether or not you genuinely love, ponder on these questions!

Do I know Jesus and have I been redeemed by His blood?

Am I patient?  Am I willing to wait for a certain thing?

Am I jealous or envious?  Or am I content and rejoice with others?

Am I boastful and pride filled?

Am I rude, harsh or gentle?

Am I always seeking my own desires or am I serving Christ and putting the good of others before myself?

Am I easily offended or do I become upset and angry over little things?

Do I keep a mental record of wrongs and bring them up later to use them to hurt someone? 

Do I falsely accuse someone of wrongdoing without any sincere cause? 

Am I willing to bear with something difficult or do I bail when something doesn’t go my way?

Do I believe the worst in other people, or do I trust and believe the best in them?

These are just some things we can be asking ourselves to make sure our hearts are filled with love as we  demonstrate it on a daily basis (not on a particular day) to honor God and humanity as a whole.

Love it is not always easy to live out, but it is worth the effort because it brings glory to God, who is love Himself so live love, show love and reach out in love.

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