I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Joshua Harris
school of true love, I'm afraid I'm still in kindergarten.
To me and other romantics who share a "love for love," God wants to give a higher, grander view. He wants to deepen our understanding. Romance can thrill us to our core, but it's only a small part of true love. We've been playing in the sandbox-- God wants to take us to the beach.
aphrodite or christ?
I cannot overemphasize the importance of gaining God's perspective on love. We can link all of the negative habits of dating to adopting a fallen world's attitudes toward love. And the conflict between God's definition of love and the world's is not new. Christians have always had a choice to either imitate the Master or slip into the more enticing pattern for love provided by the world. The apostle Paul understood this struggle when he wrote his famous chapter on love to the Christians living
35 in Corinth. He must have realized the irony of his task. In Paul's day, writing to Corinthians about God's love was the equivalent of writing a letter on family values to Hollywood today. "Corinthian" was synonymous with immorality. To "play the Corinthian" meant to give oneself to sexual pleasure. A "Corinthian girl" was another word for a prostitute. How could Paul hope to convey an understanding of God's pure love to a city steeped in perversion?
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud (1 Corinthians 13:4).
joshua harris
The bustling, cosmopolitan, port town had elevated sex to a religious pursuit. The temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, employed one thousand prostitutes. How could these people possibly understand the true meaning of the statement "God is love" (1 John 4:16) when on every street corner and from every brothel someone offered their version of "love"--sensual pleasure--to them? Would they see the truth and beauty of real love in the midst of the seductiveness of its counterfeit?
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Would Aphrodite or Christ triumph in Corinth? Would sensuality push out servanthood? Would sexuality have priority over selflessness? Would the readers of Paul's humble letter choose the everlasting or the fleeting pleasure of the moment?
Today Christians endure the very same struggle. Though separated by some two thousand years, similarities abound between our culture and that of Corinth. More than ever, sex is a commodity. Sensuality and exaggerated sexuality shout at us on every corner, if not from brothels then from newsstands and billboards. "Love is sex," a Calvin
Klein ad whispers. "Sex is pleasure," a movie tells us. And on the radio, "Pleasure is all that matters" is sung sweetly in our ears.
In the midst of this harangue, God's quiet message of true love still speaks to those who choose to listen.
Can you hear it? Put down the magazine. Turn off the VCR. Pull the plug on the stereo and listen...
36 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13: 6-8).
looking up "love" in god's dictionary 61 fashion nightmare
Like the Christians in Corinth, we have two styles of love to select from--Gods or the worlds. Which will we choose?
I have an image that may help us understand our role as followers of Christ and therefore the style of love we should adopt. You may think it sounds strange at first, but stick with me. It will make sense as I explain. I think we should view love as something we wear.
From the day Adam and Eve disobeyed God then donned fig leaves in the Garden of Eden, the world has experienced something of a fashion nightmare, not in terms of clothing but in terms of love. When sin marred God's original design for love, the human race began "wearing" a twisted, corrupted imitation based on selfishness and irresponsibility.
But because God's love is perfect and enduring,
To me and other romantics who share a "love for love," God wants to give a higher, grander view. He wants to deepen our understanding. Romance can thrill us to our core, but it's only a small part of true love. We've been playing in the sandbox-- God wants to take us to the beach.
aphrodite or christ?
I cannot overemphasize the importance of gaining God's perspective on love. We can link all of the negative habits of dating to adopting a fallen world's attitudes toward love. And the conflict between God's definition of love and the world's is not new. Christians have always had a choice to either imitate the Master or slip into the more enticing pattern for love provided by the world. The apostle Paul understood this struggle when he wrote his famous chapter on love to the Christians living
35 in Corinth. He must have realized the irony of his task. In Paul's day, writing to Corinthians about God's love was the equivalent of writing a letter on family values to Hollywood today. "Corinthian" was synonymous with immorality. To "play the Corinthian" meant to give oneself to sexual pleasure. A "Corinthian girl" was another word for a prostitute. How could Paul hope to convey an understanding of God's pure love to a city steeped in perversion?
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud (1 Corinthians 13:4).
joshua harris
The bustling, cosmopolitan, port town had elevated sex to a religious pursuit. The temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, employed one thousand prostitutes. How could these people possibly understand the true meaning of the statement "God is love" (1 John 4:16) when on every street corner and from every brothel someone offered their version of "love"--sensual pleasure--to them? Would they see the truth and beauty of real love in the midst of the seductiveness of its counterfeit?
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Would Aphrodite or Christ triumph in Corinth? Would sensuality push out servanthood? Would sexuality have priority over selflessness? Would the readers of Paul's humble letter choose the everlasting or the fleeting pleasure of the moment?
Today Christians endure the very same struggle. Though separated by some two thousand years, similarities abound between our culture and that of Corinth. More than ever, sex is a commodity. Sensuality and exaggerated sexuality shout at us on every corner, if not from brothels then from newsstands and billboards. "Love is sex," a Calvin
Klein ad whispers. "Sex is pleasure," a movie tells us. And on the radio, "Pleasure is all that matters" is sung sweetly in our ears.
In the midst of this harangue, God's quiet message of true love still speaks to those who choose to listen.
Can you hear it? Put down the magazine. Turn off the VCR. Pull the plug on the stereo and listen...
36 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13: 6-8).
looking up "love" in god's dictionary 61 fashion nightmare
Like the Christians in Corinth, we have two styles of love to select from--Gods or the worlds. Which will we choose?
I have an image that may help us understand our role as followers of Christ and therefore the style of love we should adopt. You may think it sounds strange at first, but stick with me. It will make sense as I explain. I think we should view love as something we wear.
From the day Adam and Eve disobeyed God then donned fig leaves in the Garden of Eden, the world has experienced something of a fashion nightmare, not in terms of clothing but in terms of love. When sin marred God's original design for love, the human race began "wearing" a twisted, corrupted imitation based on selfishness and irresponsibility.
But because God's love is perfect and enduring,
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