Dating & Marriage in the Bible: Implicit or Explicit
It feels like I keep writing posts on love, dating, marriage, but for some reason, it keeps popping up in my mind.
In school, I was learning about how the Bible is explicit about some things and implicit about others. When we were doing the dating and marriage topic in Sunday School, invariably, someone brought up how the Bible doesn't talk about dating. Now I'm thinking maybe it does.
Obviously, the Bible says a lot about marriage and how the husband and wife relate to each other. The Bible is very explicit about that. But since dating is so new, does the Bible have anything to say about it? I think it does in an implicit way.
Dating is a relationship and the Bible has tons to say about how we treat others. The most well known is probably what we call The Golden Rule - Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Short and sweet, that right there could easily be all we need to navigate dating. In 1 Timothy 5, Paul tells Timothy to "treat younger women as sisters, with absolute purity". Now I realize that directive is speaking to guys, but here is another point where I think the Bible is implicit. We females should treat younger men as brothers, with absolute purity. (And the beginning of 1 Timothy 5 has a great guide for almost every possible relationship).
Why do you date someone? Many times it's because you "love" them or are "in love". 1 John 3 and 4 have so much to say about love, what it is, and how it should be shown. 1 John 4:8 tells us that, "... God is love". Going back to chapter 3:11 we read, "This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another."
So it seems to me that the Bible actually does talk about dating. Does it ever say, "When dating..." no. But so many Biblical principles apply to any and all dating interactions. I'm sure there are plenty more examples than the few I've pulled off the top of my head :)
This is slightly off topic, but the way in which the Bible so perfectly applies to today is evidence in my mind that God is outside of time. He knew what was "coming". His wisdom and words are timeless.
In school, I was learning about how the Bible is explicit about some things and implicit about others. When we were doing the dating and marriage topic in Sunday School, invariably, someone brought up how the Bible doesn't talk about dating. Now I'm thinking maybe it does.
Obviously, the Bible says a lot about marriage and how the husband and wife relate to each other. The Bible is very explicit about that. But since dating is so new, does the Bible have anything to say about it? I think it does in an implicit way.
Dating is a relationship and the Bible has tons to say about how we treat others. The most well known is probably what we call The Golden Rule - Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Short and sweet, that right there could easily be all we need to navigate dating. In 1 Timothy 5, Paul tells Timothy to "treat younger women as sisters, with absolute purity". Now I realize that directive is speaking to guys, but here is another point where I think the Bible is implicit. We females should treat younger men as brothers, with absolute purity. (And the beginning of 1 Timothy 5 has a great guide for almost every possible relationship).
Why do you date someone? Many times it's because you "love" them or are "in love". 1 John 3 and 4 have so much to say about love, what it is, and how it should be shown. 1 John 4:8 tells us that, "... God is love". Going back to chapter 3:11 we read, "This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another."
So it seems to me that the Bible actually does talk about dating. Does it ever say, "When dating..." no. But so many Biblical principles apply to any and all dating interactions. I'm sure there are plenty more examples than the few I've pulled off the top of my head :)
This is slightly off topic, but the way in which the Bible so perfectly applies to today is evidence in my mind that God is outside of time. He knew what was "coming". His wisdom and words are timeless.
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