Not Yet Married by Marshall Segal

Author:Marshall Segal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012050/REL012100/REL012000
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2017-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

10

The Best Book on Dating

The single greatest book on the market today about dating wasn’t written in the last year or even in the last ten years. It was written over the course of a thousand years and published more than two thousand years ago. It never mentions dating, or really anything even remotely like it. And it is still the best book on dating you can buy.

Some of you will be tempted to skip the chapter on the Bible to read about where to set physical boundaries or when to break up with your boyfriend. We’re all prone to settle for simple, practical guidelines for life—just tell me what to do and when to do it—instead of constantly searching for deeper reasons to live and do everything we do. And because we settle for less, we often miss most of what the Bible has to offer. The Bible is not a textbook we shelve after we graduate from Sunday school, but a well of living water we need every new day. Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31). We picture the Bible being stale and expired, when, in reality, it “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). It’s not a heavy anchor holding us from afar but a living and intimate friend for every decision and season of life.

New books on relationships and dating are being published all the time (including this one), but all of them combined cannot offer us what we already have in the Bible. If I can convince you to believe that, it will dramatically change how you live, read, and date. It might, for instance, make you more fascinated with Philippians than with the latest article being passed around Facebook. It might make you more likely to spend ten extra minutes each night reading Proverbs instead of ten more minutes watching Netflix. It could finally give you the courage to wake up a little earlier and start meditating on Scripture each morning.

Many of us let the Bible sit like a statue on our shelf because we think it has very little to do with our everyday lives. Things have changed over time, so we think we need new advice. We think voices today have a better perspective and better things to say about today simply because they’re living in it. The Bible had its day, and we’re grateful for it. We even kept a copy as a statue. We want volume 2. Or probably more like volume 2,000. But all we really need, for whatever decision, situation, or relationship we face this year, is the first and only volume of its kind: God’s Word.

Is Dating Even in the Bible?

Perhaps the clearest statement in the Bible about what the Bible has to say about dating was written by Paul in

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