If I ask you, “What is the opposite of love?” and if you are like me, you will definitely say, “Duh! The opposite of love is hate!”

I know! I said that too when I read a similar question in one of those fantastic books on the topic of love. But I guess there is more to the opposite of love than we think and imagine.

So, before I state the obvious, let me define the word “hate.” One of the dictionary definitions of the word “hate” is this: “to feel intense dislike, or extreme aversion or hostility.”

Well, this feeling of intense dislike and extreme aversion will lead one to commit murder. Hate is like one step away from taking out the gun and shooting the person. That is why according to the Word of God, hate is equal to murder: “ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer . . . ” (1 John 3:15)

Now, let’s move to love. Let’s take 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a where the Word of God defines love. Let’s take the first definition of love. It says, (NIV): “Love is patient.”

So, the opposite of patient is impatient. Okay! Let’s skip few definitions of love for the purpose of making my point short and straightforward. It says, “Love does not seek its own and love doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness” (NASB). That means “the opposite of love” seeks its own and it rejoices in unrighteousness. “The opposite of love” draws pleasure from seeking its own (regardless of others’ pleasure) and it also takes pleasure by rejecting “being right with God”.

Now, let’s see love and the opposite of love in a man and a woman love relationship scenario.

When love is absent, it is not necessarily hate that takes precedence; but the opposite of love.

For example, when a young Bible believing Christian woman chooses to flirt with a young man she is dating to the point of encouraging him to touch her body and sleep with her, love is not something that is driving her; because love is patient; love waits until marriage. Love rejoices in righteousness (means love rejoices “being right with God”; love does things according to the Word of God). Love knows that God puts sex and all those foreplays (kissing which is exchanging saliva, touching and cuddling and all) in marriage; love doesn’t want to have all those things outside marriage because love doesn’t want to violate and reject God and the Word of God. Love wants to have sex according to the Word of God. So, love WAITS for God’s timing!

Well, when a girl rejects the Word of God, plays with fire and invites the man to have her body, she is not doing that because she loves the man; she is not doing that because she hates the man either (hate is murder).

No, she is not! When she is acting sexually outside marriage, she neither acts in love nor in hate but in LUST!

Lust in this context means: sexually desiring someone we are not married to. And Jesus called that “adultery” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Lust doesn’t know the meaning of “wait” because lust’s intrinsic nature is impatience. Lust wants everything now regardless of God and anyone else! Lust always cares about its own momentary and fleeting pleasure because lust always seeks its own. It cares less about anybody else because lust is basically selfish! Lust is always unkind because it rejects God and His law which says “Love your neighbor as yourself” because lust has no value and love for self as well as others.

This leads me then to state the obvious statement, i.e.: The opposite of love is LUST!

So, if you desire to act sexually with the person you are not rightfully, legitimately, and legally married to, your desire is not coming from a heart that is full of love but a heart that is full of lust. And lust, my dearest, is rude and cruel as it has a power to decisively lead one to “hate” which is the ultimate opposite of love.

When love is allowed to prevail and take over, lust loses ground to stand.

So, the one thing we need to ask ourselves to know whether we are acting out of love or out of lust is this: Am I glorifying God or disgracing the Name of God by choosing to do this? Lust can’t glorify God! Love always glorifies God!

Don’t let the devil deceive you into thinking that sex before marriage happens because of strong love. Sex before marriage is not a result of strong love but strong lust!

Remember, love never goes against God, God’s Word and His Will because GOD IS LOVE! (1 John 4:8) ///