Want to live an uncomplicated life? Get in the right posture every day (dependence upon God and a humble willingness to follow the promptings of His Spirit and the illumination of His Word). Follow His leadership. God (and His love) will flow through you, and you will fulfill everything He desires. You will be astounded by His love … and so will a watching world.

Years ago, I decided to do a multi-week preaching series through 1 Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love. What I thought would be a simple, short, warm-and-fuzzy series turned into 20 challenging and life-changing messages.

The Opposite of Love Is …

If asked before this series, I would have said the opposite of love is hate. But I discovered that is not true. The opposite of love is selfishness. Love is that “God-quality that always responds in self-sacrifice.” One of the words translated as “love” in the Greek language is the word “eros,” which means self-seeking love. “I will love you if you love me. I will love you for what I get.” But the word used in 1 Corinthians 13 and Romans 13 is “agape.” It is used only of God’s love.

His Love in Me

Man’s natural quality apart from God is eros. But if I am a true believer, this “agape” love is in me because Christ is in me. When I defer to His leadership and follow Him, this quality flows out. “The love (agape) of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” Paul says in Romans 5:5, and the “fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22).

The list of love’s qualities in 1 Corinthians 13 proves agape’s nature.

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. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

Study these qualities deeply, and you will discover they all flow from a desire to serve others. Nothing in this is about self; it is always about caring for the other individual more than yourself. This is what God is like.

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