Blog Originally Published on DylanFrercks.com
Have you ever been in a relationship and known that something just didn’t feel right?
I think we have all been there at one point or another. Whether we are dating, married, or just casually talking we need to be more intentional about who we are allowing into our lives. We are faced with constant tension from the world around us and our relationships should be a safe place in which we can refuge and rest.
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To have meaningful relationships we need to have a method of determining who is worth letting our guard down for. For the Christian, this means setting our standards high and allowing God to take care of the rest. But how high should our bar be set? The following three points are keys to a great biblical relationship.
- Date a Follower
- Set Biblical Limitations on What You Will Do
- Expect Immeasurably More
Dating a Follower
I believe this first qualifier is extremely important. The apostle Paul makes it clear that good and bad, light and darkness, Jesus and Satan simply don’t mix. If we are in a relationship with someone who views the world through a different set of lenses we will be setting ourselves up for constant disagreement.
For the Christian, this usually plays out when life is getting hard. The Christian will turn to Jesus for rest and the non-believer won’t. Usually, this means that both parties are moving in significantly different directions.
We need to be unified in our thinking in an area of life such as devotion to Jesus because what we think about Jesus will determine how we live our life. The last thing that a Christian needs is to allow themselves to get close to someone who will then turn around and lead them further away from Jesus.
Set Biblical Limitations
While our world has taken many different stances on sexuality, the model that is presented in Scripture is that sex is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman. While some would say that Christians wait until marriage because they don’t want to enjoy life I believe that we are called to wait until marriage so that we have this intimate connection with only one person!
Sex is an extremely biblical thing to do. The Bible speaks very highly of sex but only in the correct context. As a believer, we are called to meditate on the Word of God and we are called to save ourselves sexually for our spouse.
Have Higher Expectations
The world that we live in is full of broken relationships and as a Christian, we should expect something greater. Jesus didn’t say that he came to give us mediocre life, but rather; life to the full! That means if we follow Jesus and submit to His way of doing things we will also have relationships to the full!
Our expectations should be to have relationships with sadness but also compassion. Fighting but also forgiveness. Failures but also grace.
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As a Christian, our relationships will never be perfect but they should be better than what the world has presented to us. If we keep Jesus and the Gospel first and foremost in our relationships we will start to see that life is better when we are more concerned with living for others rather than ourselves.
So what are your thoughts? Share in the comments below!
About the Author
Dylan is an over-caffeinated introvert from Charleston, WV. He enjoys writing about a simplified life and following Jesus. You can find him online at www.dylanfrercks.com or on Facebook by clicking here.
Amy Allen
I so appreciate this encouragement. There’s too many things out in the world encouraging the opposite, thank you for sharing the truth! We definitely need to live serving God and others instead of ourselves, and wait for a partner who lives the same way.