A found poem. The quotations in the sixth, seventh and eighth stanzas are 1 John 1:5-7, 1 John 4:7-8 and Psalms 18:28 from the Common English Bible (2011).
What Is the Opposite of Love?
Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote,
"Hatred darkens life; love illumines it."
To darken is the opposite
of to illumine, but
is hatred, or is hate, indeed
the opposite of love?
Rollo May once wrote, "Hate
is not the opposite of love;
apathy is."
According to Elie Wiesel,
"The opposite of love
is not hate, it's indifference."
Does apathy
as well as hatred, does
indifference
as well as hatred, darken life?
It is the opposite of love,
whatever that may be,
that darkens life. It is
love that illumines life.
God Is Both Light and Love
John in his First Letter wrote, "This
is the message that we have heard from [Christ]
and announce to you: 'God is light
and there is no darkness in him at all.'
If we claim, 'We have fellowship with him,'
and live in the darkness,
we are lying
and do not act truthfully.
But if we live in the light
in the same way as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with each other,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
cleanses us from every sin."
John in that Letter also wrote, "Dear friends,
let's love each other,
because love is from God,
and everyone who loves
is born from God and knows God.
The person who doesn't love
does not know God,
because God is love."
God is, as David sang
in Psalm 18, "the one
who lights my lamp --
the LORD my God
illumines my darkness."
It is the opposite of God,
whatever that may be,
that darkens life. It is
God who illumines life.
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This poem, which I have revised and updated for this post,
was first published in the June 2, 2023, edition of
my free email newsletter Hugh's Views: The Old Elway Reader
on Substack.
