Dating is complicated. It can be difficult, confusing, or exciting and exhilarating. Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, you must always have Jesus at the center of your dating process, just like everything else in your life. As you look for a spouse, you need to ensure you have goals and standards that honor God, encourage purity, and develop healthy relationships. Lust, selfishness, and even desire for control can all play sinful parts in the dating scene and need to be points of concern for all Christians. But, again, Scripture is our guide, as it is in all things and helps set healthy boundaries and guidelines that protect everyone involved.
Next Steps for Your Dating Relationships
1. Only consider dating people with a prominent, active, and consistent walk with Jesus, not just saying they “believe in God.”
2. Be realistic and honest about your intentions as a Christian.
3. Agree on your emotional, moral, and spiritual boundaries before you are in a situation that might cause you to compromise them.
4. Focus on the friendship first and be open to it developing into more as you see them growing in Christ.
5. Christ is leading you. Seek God’s best for the other person, maintaining His standards.
6. Seek the counsel of a godly support system for regular, transparent accountability and perspective.
Below are some scriptures to help you know what God says about dating and developing romantic relationships. Finally, if you want prayer or to talk about your current situation, feel free to call the pastoral care team at 800-525-5683.
Additional Scriptures
Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? – 2 Corinthians 6:14 NLT
Treat older women as you would your mother and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. – 1 Timothy 5:2 NLT
God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— 5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 NLT
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. – Psalm 37:4 NLT
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. – Proverbs 4:23 NLT
