Nothing can propel or derail God's plan for your life like the romantic relationship you choose to enter into. Just read about Samson and Delilah or Ruth and Boaz. Your relationship can drive you closer to God and His plan for your life, or far from it. Your relationship can empower you or take your power away. Your relationship can bring peace into your life or remove it altogether. As a result, it's imperative that you grow and exercise your gift of discernment to determine which relationship(s) are sent from God and which ones are sent from the devil.
Romantic Relationships
The following are some of the types of romantic relationships that are recognized in culture: (1) dating, (2) courting, (3) long-term partnership, and (4) marriage. Before moving forward, we should have some working definitions for these terms:
- Dating - two people who socially engage with one another to determine if the person is a suitable partner for an intimate, romantic relationship.
- Courtship - two people socially engaged with one another with the intent and plan to get married.
- Long-term partnership – two or more people coming together who have made a life-long commitment to spend their lives with each other without getting married.
- Marriage - a spiritually, socially, and legally binding union between one man and one woman that is recognized by God and the law.
For the sake of this section, we will focus primarily on marriage because it's the only romantic relationship that is biblical and a depiction of God's relationship with His church. There are many people who "date" or "court" before marriage. Dating and courtship should be used to determine if a man and woman should marry. God blesses these relationships if they are ordained by Him, honor His word, and lead to marriage.
Unfortunately, some people enter dating or courting relationships and assign each other the titles of "boyfriend," "girlfriend," "partner," or "life partner" with no intent or plan to get married. Although some may disagree, it's not God's will for His children to be in relationships that practice sexual immorality or give place to the devil to tempt or deceive a man and woman into committing sexual immorality. God's word makes it clear that sex is intended for a man and woman in a marriage covenant: "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous" (Hebrews 13:4). God's word even warns us to flee from sexual immorality: "Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body" (1 Corinthians 6:18).
As Christians, we must be sober and vigilant regarding our romantic relationships because the devil would love to delay, derail, or destroy God's plan for our lives through ungodly romantic relationships. Therefore, during seasons of dating and courtship, we must abstain from the very appearance of evil and not give place to the devil to tempt and deceive us into committing sexual sin (1 Thessalonians 5:22). There is nothing wrong with dating or courting if you are led by the Lord to do so. However, if you are led to date or court by the Lord, you should honor God and keep His word in your relationship. You should have the intent and plan to move into a marriage covenant as soon as the Lord leads.
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