By Daxx Bondoc
Love is one of the misused words in our vocabulary. In effect its real meaning has become vague. Saying “I love you” and “I love pizza” seems to be same to many.
Could it be that we treat people as pizzas?
To love, real love or agape is to give oneself to the other for the sake of the other. To lust is to treat people like pizzas. To lust is to use people for your own selfish desire for pleasure. What do you do when pizza satisfies your craving? It becomes a leftover. And sooner or later it gets thrown away.
Many people feel that way.
Thrown away.
Lust uses people for selfish reasons and desires. After the reasons or desires are met, the person is discarded. And sadly we live in a culture that promotes using each other, just look at the advertising industry.
Love, the real thing is on the opposite side of lust. Love wants what is the good of the other. It does not use the other to benefit oneself. Love looks at the eyes of the beloved. Lust is trapped in his own ego, thinking how to use the other person.
Once I heard that as long as two people are in the agreement in using each other, it is alright. But it does not change the fact that you are being used and you are using another person. And people were not made to be used; we were made to be loved.
To live a life of lust is to live a life of emptiness. Only real love can truly satisfy us.
Love and lust cannot exist with each other for the reason that love cannot wait to give while lust cannot wait to take.
How does this agape looks like?
Look at Jesus on the Cross. He emptied Himself for our sake. There is no selfishness in the Crucified Christ. Jesus gave Himself totally to us.
So what is your choice? To love or to lust?
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