“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”

“I don’t want sunbursts and marble halls — I just want you.”

“I’d rather have him care for me than the wisest man in the world, simply because I love him.”

Recognize any of these famous literature quotes? They’ve been underlined and memorized by millions of people around the world, and you’ll notice they all have the same theme: romance. And if you haven’t guessed by now, that’s the theme of today’s post.

Some might consider this an odd topic to post about on a Christian living blog, but it’s really not! The biblical God is the one who ordained romance and marriage in the Garden of Eden — it’s never been something mankind came up with on their own. But in spite of that, it seems to be an avoided topic in some churches. I’m here to change that!

An especial challenge when viewing romantic relationships through a godly lens is
coming to terms with a simple, biblical fact: God is not opposed to romance, and vibrant, cute romantic relationships are not in conflict with faithfully living the Christian life.

Maybe you already believe that, but I know that not everybody finds that easy to accept. A common challenge Christians face when thinking of romantic relationships is separating romantic relationships into two mutually exclusive categories, without allowing for any middle ground.

First category: The audacious, immoral kinds of relationships you see on TV where the more
sin you commit the better — all in the name of “I love you. Kissing every cute guy you see at
Walmart, getting married four times throughout your life because after a few months the
‘sparks’ died out, and living your life for the goal of every guy you walk past calling you ‘hot’ or ‘cute’.

Second category: Dating or courtship is a stiff, formal process where you find the most spiritual person in your age group, talk about marriage on a regular basis, and perhaps eventually get married. After marriage, you spend the rest of your life with a person who is very outwardly spiritual, but as far as enjoying each other’s company, being attracted to the person, and making each other laugh… it rather feels like you’re married to a rock. But hey, that’s the way a godly person has to go about a relationship, right?

Incorrect. And in fact, you don’t even have to look outside the Bible to prove this assumption wrong.

I want you to do something for me. Think about all of the individual books in the Bible, and ask yourself what the one book we don’t often talk about is. And by that I don’t mean Nahum or Haggai, although we forget about those sometimes too.

I mean that 8 chapter book called Song of Solomon. The book that has soooo much romance and attraction that it’s a little hard to read unless you’re already married!

But God never wrote something in His Word that He didn’t mean, and He certainly never
wrote anything that He didn’t agree with. So while all of the details and dialogue of Song of
Solomon aren’t necessarily something you should memorize depending on your season of life, there is an obvious biblical truth here:

God does not hate romance, it is not something that He condemns, and (brace yourself) physical attraction is actually good and healthy, it’s not a capital sin!

Read over these select verses from this over-neglected book, and don’t just gloss over them. Absorb them and believe them, even if it seems illogical in our flawed, human understanding!

“Behold, you are fair, my love! You have dove’s eyes.” – Song. 1:15
“For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” – Song. 2:14
“His head is like the finest gold; his locks are wavy, and black as a raven.” – Song. 5:11
“My dove, my perfect one, is the only one [for me]” – Song 6:9

Still doubtful? Let’s put one more nail in the coffin by posing a simple question. All of
those verses I listed in Song of Solomon are found in what part of the Bible? The Old
Testament. So for anyone who would like to pride themselves on taking the Old Testament
more seriously than the New, you cannot escape this truth! The same is true for those who value the New Testament higher than the Old; read the epistles. Take Hebrews 13 for one example:

“Marriage is honorable among all, and the marriage bed undefiled; but fornicators
and adulterers God will judge” -Hebrews 13:4 (emphasis mine)

No matter where you turn in the Bible, God says the same thing over and over again! Don’t fall prey to the lies your heart may want to tell you — romantic attraction before and in marriage is a good gift God grants us, and it’s something that we are supposed to cherish when He grants it to us, not shy away from it. Truly “it is not good for man to be alone”!