The Bible does not prescribe one modern dating system, but it speaks clearly about the relationships we form and the way we treat one another. Before choosing a spouse, we need to consider faith, character, sexual holiness, and the responsibilities of marriage. We also need to honor those who remain single. I want to begin with marriage itself, because understanding that covenant helps us judge the choices that lead toward it.
Marriage Is a Covenant, While Dating Is a Decision-Making Process
Neither modern dating nor a particular courtship or arranged-marriage custom is a biblical ordinance. Scripture does not require every Christian to date, set a universal number of meetings, or prescribe the same engagement schedule for every couple. Those considering marriage still answer to God for how they proceed. Truthfulness, self-control, sexual holiness, wise counsel, and respect for parents belong in that process.
Dating can help two people decide whether marriage would be wise, but it does not make them husband and wife. Strong feelings give neither person ownership of the other, and neither acquires marital rights. A boyfriend cannot claim a husband’s headship. If a dating relationship needs to end, ending it is not divorce.
Living together does not supply the missing covenant, and years invested in a relationship cannot create it either. From the beginning, a Christian couple should be honest about their intentions and pursue them patiently, with continued involvement among other believers. Scripture’s directions concerning marriage, including marriage to a fellow believer, should guide the relationship before a promise is made.
And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
God made the woman as a helper comparable to the man. She shared his full human dignity and corresponded to him without being inferior or merely his duplicate. Their companionship was God’s good provision.
The man leaves his parents’ household, joins himself to his wife, and becomes one flesh with her. Marriage establishes a new household and an exclusive covenant allegiance between one man and one woman. Jesus later treated that creation order as authoritative, rather than dismissing it as a temporary custom.
One flesh includes sexual union, but the marriage also joins a whole life in covenant loyalty. Husband and wife become embodied companions with responsibilities others can recognize. I cannot reduce that union to shared benefits or a feeling the couple privately declares. Malachi makes the covenant responsibility especially clear.
And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, With weeping and crying; So He does not regard the offering anymore, Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the LORD has been witness Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. “For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”
These men had betrayed the wives of their youth while continuing their religious activity. The Lord would not accept that activity as a cover for treachery. He had witnessed the covenant, and He called each wife her husband’s companion. Their conduct toward her could not be separated from their claim to honor Him.
Marriage involves solemn consent to an exclusive commitment, recognizable to others and accountable before God. Customs differ across cultures, but secrecy, deception, and exploitation cannot provide its biblical foundation. The commitment is intended to last for life, including seasons when faithfulness is inconvenient.
Malachi’s rebuke makes me examine conduct before accepting someone’s claim to spiritual maturity or leadership. Covenant faithfulness requires truth and kept promises. Religious language cannot make betrayal an expression of biblical manhood or womanhood.
Sexual Union Belongs Within Marriage
“If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins.
Sexual intimacy does not itself create a marriage covenant. In this law, the man who seduced an unbetrothed virgin incurred an obligation to seek marriage and pay the bride-price, the marriage payment required by that law. Her father could nevertheless refuse the union. The sexual act had occurred, yet marriage had not automatically followed from it.
The man remained accountable even if marriage was refused. In that ancient setting, seduction could gravely damage a woman’s future, and the law did not let him use her and walk away without responsibility. Offering marriage afterward did not excuse what he had done.
Sex carries covenant meaning, but it cannot manufacture the covenant it belongs within. Paul also distinguishes bodily union from marriage when confronting sexual immorality in Corinth.
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul quotes Genesis 2 to describe the bodily union with a prostitute, yet he does not call her the man’s wife. He condemns the encounter as a misuse of bodies belonging to Christ. The seriousness of becoming one body with her does not turn the act into a wedding.
A believer’s body belongs to the Lord, is a member of Christ, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Sexual immorality therefore cannot be dismissed as harmless recreation or an entirely private arrangement. Even mutual consent does not authorize us to use what belongs to Christ in a way He forbids.
We flee sexual immorality because we were bought at a price. Self-control honors the body rather than despising it. God’s commands preserve the goodness of sexuality within a faithful covenant; they do not treat our embodied life as a mistake.
Jesus also addressed the Samaritan woman’s marital situation while offering her living water.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
Jesus recognized the Samaritan woman’s five previous husbands while telling her that the man she now had was not her husband. John does not explain how all those marriages ended or supply every detail of the current relationship. Jesus’ distinction remains plain: a man and woman can be involved with one another without being married.
He told her the truth without degrading her. He offered living water, spoke about true worship, and revealed Himself as the Messiah. Mercy did not require Him to rename her present relationship as marriage. Nor did holiness keep Him from offering her the life she needed.
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
Sanctification means being set apart for God, and Paul expressly includes abstaining from sexual immorality in that calling. I understand his reference to possessing one’s vessel as governing the body in holiness and honor. Some understand the phrase as taking or living with a wife; the alternatives are explained in the NET notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:4. Either reading belongs to a passage that forbids lustful exploitation and calls for honorable conduct.
Sexual sin can defraud another person. Someone may promise love or marriage to obtain intimacy while withholding the covenant commitment that promise implies. Adultery betrays a spouse to whom loyalty is already owed. Pornography also directs desire toward consuming images instead of loving a person, while supporting an industry marked by exploitation.
Paul says that rejecting this command rejects the God who gives His Holy Spirit. We do not have to face temptation without His help. Scripture should renew our thinking, while honest confession and wise accountability expose what secrecy protects. Practical distance from temptation and trustworthy pastoral care can help us act on what we know is right.
Desire Needs Boundaries, and Both Marriage and Singleness Are Honorable
Scripture does not supply a chart assigning a moral status to every possible premarital touch. I would not use that absence to negotiate how close to sexual sin I could get while claiming technical innocence. Boundaries should help a couple honor God, and they need to address the temptations that couple actually faces.
Privacy, late hours, media choices, and alcohol can affect judgment and self-control. Travel plans and sleeping arrangements should be considered before the situation arises. If physical affection repeatedly moves beyond an agreed limit, the answer is a stronger boundary and an honest response to the pattern.
Pornography, sexualized messages, explicit images, and deliberately cultivated fantasies feed lust. A couple should not use deliberate sexual stimulation to imitate marital intimacy before making the covenant. Consent does not make sex outside marriage holy, and pressure for sexual access is itself a serious warning.
Bargaining, sulking, threatening to end the relationship, or using spiritual language to overcome someone’s refusal is manipulation. The person applying that pressure is responsible for it. Coercion and assault must not be described as a shared failure of self-control.
Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Paul describes marital intimacy as a mutual responsibility. Husband and wife owe loving consideration to one another; neither receives one-sided ownership. Temporary abstinence for the stated spiritual purpose should be by mutual consent and followed by reunion.
These responsibilities cannot authorize coercion. Marriage does not turn assault into a privilege. Husband and wife should communicate honestly, take health concerns seriously, and approach intimacy with tenderness and concern for the other’s well-being. Love does not use the passage to demand harm.
Paul acknowledges strong desire and recognizes marriage as the proper setting for sexual intimacy. A wedding, however, does not cure an undisciplined heart. Character and self-control remain necessary afterward. A couple should not rush into a covenant while refusing to address conduct that will follow them into the home.
Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy has made trustworthy. I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress–that it is good for a man to remain as he is: Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord–how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world–how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world–how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction. But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of youth, and thus it must be, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin; let them marry. Nevertheless he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own will, and has so determined in his heart that he will keep his virgin, does well. So then he who gives her in marriage does well, but he who does not give her in marriage does better. A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is, according to my judgment–and I think I also have the Spirit of God.
Paul honors both marriage and singleness. Marrying is good and is not sin. Remaining unmarried can also provide opportunities for undivided attention to the Lord, especially amid the distress Paul addresses. He gives counsel for their benefit rather than imposing a universal requirement that they remain single.
Unmarried adults are not incomplete Christians whose real lives must wait for a wedding. Jesus was unmarried, and Paul served as an unmarried man. Belonging to God’s family does not depend on becoming part of a married couple.
Churches should welcome single believers into close friendships, homes, counsel, and meaningful service. Contentment need not mean that someone stops desiring marriage. It means submitting that desire to Christ without allowing marital status to determine personal worth or isolate a person from the church’s shared life.
Purposeful Dating Looks for Faith and Proven Character
Two people considering marriage need to speak honestly about faith and commitment to a local church, then allow time to see how those convictions shape daily life. They should discuss expectations about family, work, money, debt, children, and where they could live. Health concerns, sexual history, and any previous marriage require truthful, appropriate discussion without demands for humiliating detail.
Purpose does not require a decision about marriage after the first meeting. We need to see a person outside carefully arranged occasions. How does that person respond to disappointment, conflict, responsibility, and correction? Serving alongside other believers and spending time in community can reveal patterns that intense attraction initially conceals.
Ending a relationship may hurt, but time invested and the hopes of both families do not create a debt payable by marriage. If the relationship should end, it is better to say so honestly than become engaged to avoid the conversation.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”
Paul’s image of an unequal yoke concerns a binding partnership between people answering to opposing masters. A yoke joins animals to pull together, but righteousness and lawlessness cannot supply the same direction. The principle extends beyond romance; it does not forbid every friendship or ordinary contact with unbelievers.
Marriage is one of the strongest such commitments. Faith shapes a shared home’s worship, money, sexual faithfulness, and raising of children. A Christian should not pursue a romance toward a covenant Scripture forbids. Paul gives an especially direct instruction when discussing a widow’s freedom to remarry.
A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
Marriage must be “only in the Lord.” A profession of faith spoken to preserve a romance is not enough evidence of that relationship. I would look at doctrine, repentance, consistent conduct, and participation in a faithful church. The aim is to recognize genuine faith, not demand sinless perfection.
This concerns entering a new marriage. A Christian already married to an unbeliever should follow 1 Corinthians 7 rather than abandon a spouse who is willing to remain. The warning against an unequal yoke does not dissolve the existing covenant.
Attraction can be a good part of choosing a spouse, but beauty, humor, social confidence, and financial success cannot compensate for dishonesty or uncontrolled anger. Manipulation and refusal of correction deserve serious attention. I need to consider the person before me rather than an imagined version of what that person might become.
Look for someone who tells the truth when it costs something, works faithfully without constant supervision, and treats vulnerable people kindly. Notice the response to boundaries, the handling of money, and conduct under pressure. When repentance is needed, changed behavior should follow the words. Repeated conduct deserves more confidence than a sudden promise after confrontation, and mature believers may see what infatuation makes us eager to excuse.
Godly Marriage Follows Christ’s Pattern
A godly woman receives Scripture’s authority and increasingly expresses it through truthfulness, diligent work, wise decisions, and kindness. Humility does not require weakness or passivity. She can take initiative, think carefully, and speak with firm conviction.
Rebekah’s generous hospitality in Genesis 24 showed initiative and a willingness to serve. Her later favoritism and deception also warn us against treating one impressive encounter as proof of someone’s whole character. A prospective spouse needs to be observed over time.
Proverbs condemns contentiousness, but its warnings cannot be used to dismiss every concern a woman raises. A wife may disagree with her husband, identify his sin, and offer counsel he needs. Scripture also condemns a husband’s harshness, folly, adultery, and domination. He cannot excuse those things by directing attention to his wife’s responsibilities.
A godly man follows Christ before asking anyone to follow his leadership. He receives correction, keeps his promises, works faithfully, and governs his sexual desires without blaming a woman for them. His strength should make others safer. He should be willing to serve without needing constant praise.
Providing for a household requires diligent stewardship rather than boastful promises. First Timothy 5:8 addresses anyone responsible for relatives, not husbands alone, and Proverbs 31 describes a wife contributing economically. Responsibility should be considered honestly without making wealth the measure of a man’s faithfulness.
Practical direction for a household is wise, but Proverbs 29:18 concerns prophetic revelation and keeping God’s law, not the polish of a prospective husband’s five-year plan. The word for vision concerns divine communication, as the Brown-Driver-Briggs entry explains. We should not turn the passage into a requirement God has not given.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Scripture gives the husband headship and calls a wife to submit to her own husband as to the Lord. Both remain under Christ’s authority. Abuse of those roles does not give us reason to erase them, and it cannot redefine what they require.
The husband’s example is Christ giving Himself for the church. Nourishing and cherishing his wife requires sacrifice on her behalf rather than domination. The sinless Son willingly endured the bodily suffering wicked men inflicted, shed His blood, and died for our sins before rising bodily. The Father did not punish or abandon Him. A husband cannot use Christ’s example to justify making his wife suffer for his own comfort.
A wife submits in willing obedience to God, which gives her husband no authority to command sin, suppress truth, isolate her, or cause harm. The church must not conceal abuse under the language of headship. Leadership that follows Christ welcomes accountability and acts for the other person’s good.
Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil All the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good, And her lamp does not go out by night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hand holds the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, For all her household is clothed with scarlet. She makes tapestry for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies sashes for the merchants. Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates.
The woman in Proverbs 31 is trustworthy, strong, diligent, and prepared. She considers a field before buying it, invests in a vineyard, trades profitably, and gives to the poor. Wisdom governs both her work and her speech. Her household benefits from her initiative, and her husband trusts her.
I read this poem as wisdom expressed across a woman’s life, rather than a daily list she must complete to earn affection. Its center is fear of the Lord. Men should honor the strength described here, and women should not be burdened by comparisons that ignore health, resources, family needs, or season of life. The poem praises faithful work made visible over time.
Warning Signs, Abuse, Repentance, and the Gospel
Repeated lies, sexual pressure, a defense of pornography, uncontrolled anger, financial secrecy, and substance abuse should not be brushed aside. Stalking, jealous control, isolation from church, and cruelty toward vulnerable people or animals are serious warnings. Refusal of correction makes a harmful pattern more concerning, not less.
Repentance involves accepting responsibility, making restitution where possible, welcoming accountability, and changing conduct over time. An apology after consequences arrive cannot substitute for those things. A dating partner is not obligated to remain in the relationship to discover whether the repentance is sincere. Forgiveness does not require continued dating or a decision to marry someone who has proved untrustworthy.
We should name the actual conduct. Inventing a “Jezebel spirit” to condemn a woman does not improve our discernment, and calling a controlling man a strong leader does not make his behavior right. Scripture gives us plain words for deceit, cruelty, coercion, and sexual sin.
A person sexually assaulted has not sinned by being assaulted. Forced contact creates neither marriage nor a hidden spiritual bond, and the victim bears no moral stain from the offender’s act. Shame belongs to the person who committed the abuse.
Marriage never authorizes rape, physical violence, threats, constant surveillance, confinement, or the use of money as a weapon. A spouse seeking safety is not rebelling against biblical headship. The covenant does not require someone to remain exposed to violence.
If danger is immediate, the first concern is reaching a safer place and contacting local emergency services. After a recent assault, prompt care from a qualified medical provider can address health needs. A sexual assault forensic examination may also preserve evidence while respecting the survivor’s choices, including when the person has not decided whether to report. RAINN explains this care and the examination process.
Church leaders should listen carefully and protect the vulnerable. They must not pressure a victim’s legal decisions or attempt amateur investigations that could contaminate evidence. Applicable reporting law must be followed, with help from qualified local advocates. Duties vary by location and circumstances, including age; U.S. readers can consult RAINN’s state-law resources. Forgiveness never cancels reasonable safety measures, replaces civil justice, or supplies the evidence of repentance that an offender has not shown.
Nothing in the call to repentance makes a victim guilty of another person’s crime. For those who have committed sexual sin, Paul also gives a clear promise of cleansing in Christ.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul names sexual sins among conduct that characterizes those outside God’s kingdom, but he can also tell the church, “such were some of you.” They had been washed, set apart for God, and justified in Jesus’ name and by His Spirit. The gospel had changed who they were.
Past sexual sin may leave consequences and require difficult honesty in a serious relationship. It does not place a repentant believer beyond Christ’s cleansing. Repentance neither excuses the conduct nor demands despair. It brings sin into the light, stops protecting it, and receives the Savior’s forgiveness.
Where secrecy has allowed a pattern to grow, seeking help and establishing safeguards belong to leaving it behind. Changed conduct should increasingly honor other people instead of using them. Christian purity begins with belonging to Christ; a respectable appearance cannot replace that relationship.
Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin and without sin. Wicked men physically tortured and punished Him before killing Him. He willingly bore that real punishment for our sins in His innocent body and shed His blood. His saving work through His blood and death was complete before He rose bodily. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus.
Christ died for the whole world, and God’s genuine offer can be resisted or rejected. Everyone is called to repent and believe. The person who truly believes is forgiven and declared righteous before God, born again, made new, and indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit as eternally secure. That security gives no permission for sexual lawlessness. A superficial profession does not establish new birth; those who belong to Christ should show evidence of new life in their conduct.
My Final Thoughts
Dating should help us make a wise decision rather than give us possession of another person. Sexual involvement cannot create the covenant that belongs to marriage, and a marriage covenant never authorizes coercion or harm. I want proven faith and character to carry more weight than chemistry, flattering promises, or fear of disappointing others. Christ calls us to holiness and offers cleansing where we have sinned. Whether married or single, we belong to Him and should treat others with the dignity His commands require.