Up until yesterday, I had always thought that the opposite of love is hate.
It isn't.
The opposite of love is selfishness. Love is the focus on giving into the lives of others.
Interestingly enough, hate can actually be a component of love. If you love God and people, then you will hate things that hurt God and people.
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I have thought for some time that the opposite of love is fear, which is the root of selfishneses.
Fear of loving (for lack of trust in others and fear of hurt) will always produce selfishness, which starts with self-reliance, then must be reinforced with lifting oneself up, which in turn requires fulfilling one's own needs before anyone else because of one's own self-importance.
When my full trust and dependence is on and in the Lord, then I have no fear whatsoever and I am free to totally love. If I am hurt, I can remain in love, because love works forgiveness. If I suffer loss, I can remain in love, because love reminds me that I am fully sustained only by Him who loved me first and gave Himself for me.
Completeness of love removes fear and casts it away. Selfishness is an opposite of love, but I believe that is because selfishness is rooted in fear. Pride is a symptom of fear. The problem is that I cannot kill a weed by cutting off the part I can see. I can cut that part off, but if I have not uprooted it, the weed continues to grow and sprouts up again shortly. But if I can cut off the weed of selfishness, and replace that fear with the love of God that He has not only for me but for all men, then the underlying power of selfishness is totally removed.
Maybe it is just this way for me personally, but I find that when fear is removed, then the power that feeds the great pride is removed, and my desire to be selfish dissipates. In my life, my pride is the enemy's smoke and mirror that had for so long fooled me into thinking that it was my root problem, and that I could not get rid of it because I was beating the air. My underlying fear was producing that need for selfishness and lack of care for anyone else.
But as I am learning how I am loved, it is replacing my fear with that same love, and in that love selfishness just doesn't fit in. Without the fear, that addictive selfish drive loses steam and dies off.
Good point, hadn't thought of it that way.
1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Though the more I think about it, I tend to conclude that fear is a result of selfishness. Fear comes from worrying that something will harm self.
I would probably say that faith works by love, and that the opposite of faith is fear...
In either way the case can be made that fear and selfishness tend to go hand-in-hand.
In my own life at least, I have noticed the dependency of selfishness on fear. I suppose it could very well be different for others. When I am not afraid of what man might do to me or think of me, then I do not have to run to the shelter of self-importance.
Selfishness itself probably has a wider range of influence than self-importance though...
As a side note, I can have faith without love, but I cannot have love without faith
selfishness must be love's opposite, as you noted. i cannot convince myself otherwise after much reflection.
And that fear would be faith's opposite is clarified in doubt being the expectation of a feared result. Even Jesus said, "Fear not, only believe" implying that faith is an opposite replacement for fear.
thank you for shared insight
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