When it comes to meeting people the way most of us think about it today, we won’t find any references about dating or meeting people on line in the bible, but God has a lot to say about His intention for relationships between men and women. 2Peter 1:3 (NLT) states, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” Heavenly Father didn’t spare one thing when it comes to supplying all that we need to live a life that is pleasing to Him, and rewarding and fulfilling to us as well. He gave us His Word, and His Word is the definitive authority in every aspect of life. So, if we are interested in having a quality person in our lives, someone that is truly a destiny partner, we must listen to the wisdom of our Heavenly Father, and be obedient to it.
The ‘Oneness’ Parable
The Pharisees were a group of men who were considered the upper echelon of Jewish society. In earlier biblical times, middle-class male children would leave their parents at ages as young as two or three. They would be brought up in the synagogues where they were taught the Laws of Moses, as well as Jewish customs and traditions. These boys would grow into Pharisees who would become prominent and very influential businessmen and leaders in the synagogues. They were zealous for the law, and believed themselves pure because they followed it so religiously. They also hated Jesus Christ, because many of his teachings did not support the Pharisee’s beliefs.
Jesus Christ was full of God’s love. He was charismatic, and he was an extraordinary teacher. People were captivated by his presence, and he drew a crowd wherever he went. Mark 10:1(NLT) says, “Then Jesus left Capernaum and went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River. Once again crowds gathered around him, and as usual he was teaching them.” The Pharisees would follow him and would ask questions, hoping to catch Jesus in a trap. They asked whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, and said that Mosaic Law did in fact allow divorce. Jesus Christ gave the explanation for why Moses had constituted this law in Mark 10:5(NLT). Jesus responded, “He wrote this commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts.”
He went on to say that in the beginning, God made male and female. He didn’t make two females for one male, neither did He make two males for one female. Heavenly Father’s plan was that the two, one male and one female, would become one; so that they are no longer operating as two individuals. Their love and commitment knits them together as one person in the eyes of God. This is His standard and plan for the relationship between men and women, and it has not changed, because God does not change. In Mark 10:9(NLT) Jesus said, “Let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
God’s Invention
Marriage is God’s invention. It’s His institution and to think that our plans for hooking up are better is unwise. God’s wisdom and goodness are flawless. One of the reasons that marriage is important to God is because it marks out the pattern for us to understand the inseparable union between Jesus Christ and us, his beloved bride—the body of Christ.
God’s Goal
Ephesians 4:13-15 tells us that God’s goal for every Christian is to come to such an understanding and practice of unity within our faith and knowledge of Christ, that we grow to great levels of spiritual maturity. When we mature in the unity of Christ, we won’t be immature like children, and we won’t be tossed and blown about every time we hear someone speaking flowery or new words we haven’t heard before. We won’t be tricked out of our solid standing on the foundation of Christ by people that talk a good game but have nothing to show for it. Instead, because we cling to Christ with everything in us, we will speak truth from a loving heart, all the while growing every day to be more like Christ; recognizing that he’s the head of our lives and the head of the church.
How We Achieve It!
A person can’t rise above something they don’t believe or haven’t been taught. Saying that we can be unified in Christ without an intimate understanding of unity isn’t logical. That’s not how human’s work. We learn by example. Our braincells soak up information by seeing something in operation, and by understanding how it works. We then have a good basis for beginning to emulate or replicate what we’ve seen, heard, and learned. God wants us to get this unity thing right because it is so integral to our walk with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. We should recognize that God teaches us about His love through the union of our other relationships. We should also know that inviting Heavenly Father to take the lead, and allowing Christ to be the Head in our relationships, will help them to flourish and last.
The enemy aims to break up marriages and relationships because he hates unity, and doesn’t want us to receive the blessings it brings or the wisdom it gives. Society wants us to adopt its views and lose the foundation that God has placed for His plan, but we should never swap out God’s standard for a lesser version. God’s way is always best. When it comes to dating and relationships, we may have our own personal preferences, but Jesus Christ commanded us in Matthew 6:33 that we must seek Heavenly Father’s righteousness first. God has equipped and created us with the capacity to be fully committed in a relationship, and we should honor His standard for how men and women should come together, so that we can value one another, and learn to unify in the love of Christ. ■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“God’s Relationship Advice” written by JMack. 4theChristianMan.Com© 2018. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.