Once upon a time (that may or may not of been very long ago), I was very anti-dating. This was something I wrote during that time. Since then, I have gotten a little better, but I still have my concerns and doubts about the whole idea and thought process. Out of all the relationships I know of (which are many) there are 2 that I admire. There are too many that make me feel uncomfortable. When I wrote this I think I was a little extreme in my thinking but some of my points are true and there are things that we should watch out for and think about.
Mt 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart
That’s just looking at…What do you think he would say about claiming someone who might someday be another man’s wife?
What is adultery?
Adultery: voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse
1Corinthians 10:14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
What is idolatry?
Idolatry:
1. The religious worship of idols. 2. Excessive or blind adoration, reverence, devotion, ect. Another said… excessive admiration or love shown for somebody or something.
Disloyalty:
1. Being Disloyal, a lack of loyalty to a person, vow, organization, or state
2. a disloyal or unfaithful act
Unfaithful:
1. adulterous, engaging in sexual relations with somebody other than a spouse or partner
2. Untrue to commitments, untrue to commitments, duties, beliefs, or ideals
3. Not like original, not true to the original
Lust:
1. Sexual desire, the strong physical desire to have sex with somebody, usually without associated feelings of love or affection
2. Eagerness, great eagerness or enthusiasm for something
Synonyms are: yearn, desire, long for, hunger for, envy, ect.
Dating: the activity of going out regularly with somebody as a social or romantic partner.
Date: a romantic engagement with somebody
Romantic:
1. Involving sexual love, involving or characteristic of a love affair or sexual love, especially when the relationship is idealized or exciting and intense
2. Suitable for love, characterized by or suitable for lovemaking or the expression of tender emotion
Ephesians 4:19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
1Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-- living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
The world we live in says that lust is good, and everyone is doing it. The pressure is out there that if you don’t have a boy/girl friend you are not somebody. The Bible paints this beautiful picture of marriage and how it should be like Christ and the church. We make a mockery of the symbolism by dating and having the vow of “till death do us part…or I find someone better.” “I’m getting to know someone better to see if they’re the ‘right’ one for me” little do you know that they are showing you only what they want you to see so you really aren’t seeing the real them, or maybe you are just studying your human anatomy “We’re just going to live together to see if it would work out if we got married”. How blind and perverse we are becoming. The stories we tell ourselves to make it ok don’t really line up sometimes. What are we showing the rest of the world, when we are acting just like them? If we hurt friends over a relationship it shows you how they treat the people they are closest to, next time it might be you they hurt. How is that showing Jesus to the world? Why does it have to be this way?
Proverbs 5:15-18
Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
This is the passage that got me thinking. Especially verse 17 the part that says “never to be shared with strangers”. What gets shared that we will never get back when we invest time and emotion in someone? Or will we ever know what has been lost?
