The Opposite of Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud

5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 The “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 is one of my favorites.

I think it is probably the best summary to help us as humans understand the mark that was set by God who did not simply CREATE love but IS love. When we submit our lives to Christ and allow Him to live through us, the marks of love should be evident to everyone around us in our everyday lives. When people see or interact with us it should make them curious why and then when they ask, it gives us an opportunity to witness for Christ. 

As I was reading this chapter I thought of what was the opposite of each of these natural evidences of love. Essentially, what would the evidence of “hate” in our lives look like? When we accept Christ into our hearts there can be this misconception that love is an automatic overflow. No one wants to be thought of as hateful, especially a follower of Christ.

Let’s look at a rewrite of a few love chapter verses to see what this negative fruit looks like.

4 Hate is impatient, and unkind. Hate is jealous, boastful and most of all, proud.

5 Hate is rude. It demands its own way, is easily irritable, and keeps ALL record of being wronged.

6 Hate rejoices in injustice and hates when truth wins out.

7 Hate is relenting causing failure, always loses faith, is never hopeful, and fails when circumstances get tough.

As a follower of Christ, do you get impatient or act unkind? Are you jealous of either physical things that people have or how about this one; jealous of Spiritual gifts of another member of the body of Christ?

How about acting rude or easily irritable or losing faith in those dark moments? These are all trademarks of hate and not love.

I sometimes do the same thing with proverbs when reading chapters. I think of the opposite of what it says and then review my life to see if I am acting in a way that doesn’t show love or, more importantly, reflects poorly on my example of Christ to the world around me.

Now think of your life when you are really down and get into problems. The truth about the human condition is when we are at our lowest points in life, that is who we truly are. Not when everything is going well without cares.

And, a great litmus test to let you know where you stand in your walk with God is how people react to you in those lowest moments. It can become so easy to have “creep” in our walk with God and to slip into the opposite of who God wants us to be for ourselves and the world around us.

Today, take some time to make sure that the qualities of Godliness in the Bible are evident in your life and keep your eyes on Christ at all times. The Bible is a wonderful mirror to be able to examine ourselves with timeless truths that not only honor God but give us the BEST life hear on this earth until we are called home to be with Christ forever!