Dating
This is a subject that I had to face with a new perspective once I became a Christian. Questions like, "Where do I draw the line?" arose and found the verses for these questions fast but the answers weren't always exactly what I wanted.
A good verse to start out with would be Psalm 119:9, it sets the tone for finding the rest of the verses:
Psalm 119:9
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word.
It's easy to be told rules but rules don't always work in all cases. One thing I really like is principles because they can be applied in any case. Here are four principles that I was given by my one of my mentors that applies well to dating etiquette:
- Can I thank God the Father?
- Does it glorify God?
- Can I do it in Jesus' name?
- What would Jesus do?
For me these are almost the hardest issues. That is why it is so important to know what God has to say about it. Here are more verses:
Ephesians 5:3
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. (NIV)
Ecclesiastes 11:9-10
9 Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. 10 So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
1 Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
2 Timothy 2:22
Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1 Cor 6:18-19
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
Romans 13:13-14
Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15
14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
1 Corinthians 6:13
Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
1 John 3:3
And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.