Because heterosexual attraction is innate, purposeful, and powerful (see yesterday’s post), it can either bless your life abundantly when expressed in love for your mate or curse your life unmercifully when expressed in lust.
There are at least four distinct differences between love and lust:
- Love is unselfish; lust is selfish. Love gives to another out of a selfless desire to do what is another’s best interest regardless of the cost. Lust takes from another and is never satisfied. A husband’s love for his wife is to be sacrificial, sanctifying, and nourishing (Ephesians 5:25-29), because love is unselfish.
- Love respects; lust disrespects. Love honors (1 Peter 3:7), cherishes and nurtures (Ephesians 5:29). Lust dishonors, demeans, and destroys.
- Love uplifts; lust degrades. A loving husband looks upon his wife as a person of innate worth, precious in the sight of God, and of inestimable value to him. A lustful man uses a woman, viewing her as a thing to be exploited and then discarded.
- Love liberates and ennobles; lust enslaves and degrades.
Sexual attraction can either be a fire which warms and comforts or harms and destroys. The choice is yours.
Choose wisely.
