What is love, and what is the opposite of love? The likely reply to “What is the opposite of love?” is hate. However, hate is a symptom, not the root itself. At the root of hate is selfishness. Hate requires an incendiary, and that incendiary is selfishness, which encompasses pride, lust, covetousness, and envy. At the crux of all evil is selfishness, which makes it the opposite of love, but God is love.

Love and hatred are not necessarily exclusive. God is love; yet, God also hates. Love is to hate evil; yet the Lord desires that those given to evil turn from it. God hates because he loves. In the absence of evil, no anger, judgment, or wrath of God is made manifest, for God is love.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” It is also written, “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)

“You who love the Lord hate evil” (Psalm 97:10). Godly hatred only exists because of the presence of evil. There was no hatred before sin. Lucifer hated God first, and his hatred for God derived from his selfishness. Selfishness was conceived with pride and lust, which brought forth envy, hatred, and every evil thing.

In chapter 14 of Isaiah, Lucifer speaks his heart; every sentence contains the self-centered word, “I”:

“I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.”

Lucifer imagined overthrowing God, beginning with accusations of Him being selfish. Demanding equality, he sowed seeds of discord in heaven; disaffected angels joined his rebellion, and the war between good and evil began. The Lord has allowed it to continue until all the tares are grown and gathered.

Lucifer invented Marxism before Karl Marx became his avatar to spread the ideology. Marxism is more accurately called “Luciferianism.”

Lucifer’s message is the same message of discontentment that is spreading today: a call to rebellion against authority, inequality, hierarchy, and the patriarchy established by God. Lucifer is the original “social justice warrior.”

God, being perfect in holiness, will not reside with evil. Thus, Satan was thrust out with his angels; they are set apart and confined to a realm prepared for them until the Great Day of Judgment.

God could have destroyed Lucifer and his followers utterly and eternally at the moment of rebellion. Instead, He placed them on hold until an appointed time of judgment of all things. Once wickedness was conceived, it became necessary to allow it to grow to maturity before plucking it up by the roots; it must come to its fullness before absolute destruction, or it will sprout again.

The Lord is a God of judicial process. Once sin was conceived, due process was required before eternal judgment and destruction to fulfill all righteousness.

God allows the tares to grow with the wheat until maturity so that the manifestation of both good and evil, in their fullness, has come before the appointed time of reaping. Then all things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will be judged. These things are told beforehand, that humanity would be without excuse.

In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light,” and God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. When God created all things, he looked at them and said that they were good.

At the beginning, God saw the light as being good, not darkness. Satan and those with him in darkness were exposed by that light; they were indicted, arrested, and confined to prison, where they are now being held in “chains of darkness” awaiting trial.

God is currently anticipating the fullness of the earth’s precious fruit. Long-suffering and not willing that any should perish, He has prolonged judgment for the sake of salvation until the appointed day of recompense. On that day, God’s perfect love will be eternally on display, leading to the eternal resolution of all things and the destruction of evil.

Selfishness is the opposite of love. Selfishness dwells in our flesh. Christ came in the flesh and selflessly gave Himself to crucify selfishness in the flesh on the cross.

Christ is the perfectly selfless one. He sought not his own will but did only the will of his Father. The opposite of selfishness is Christ, and the opposite of Christ is Satan. Ultimately, everyone must choose between them.