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Contrast of Modern Day Romance vs. Biblical Romance

Love is a subject many people ponder, many people desire, and many people think they can define. However, God has given us only one book in which to place our trust and upon which to base our faith. In this book, much is written about Love, and much is not written about love. However, God gives us many examples of Love from which we can draw in order to sketch a Godly view of Romance even in our modern day.

Today's view of Love is one of Sensuality and selfishness. Love today is something that can be broken by a number of situations, or it can be broken for no reason other then that one person no longer "feels love" towards their partner. Divorce has skyrocketed, and the number one reason for this change seems to be the redefinition of the word "love" by our distorted, contemporary society.

Consider the Story of Jacob and his Romance with Rachel. Their courtship was far longer then any I have heard of recently: in all, it lasted 7 years and one week. He worked for the right to marry his love, and it is recorded that the first seven years "seemed unto him [Jacob] but a few days, for the love he had to her." Seven years, and after the first seven, he was given Rachel's elder sister to wed. He worked ANOTHER 7 years for the right to marry Rachel. (Though he did marry Rachel after the first 7, he married her "on credit.")

Another classic story of Love found in the Bible is that of Ruth, a woman who follows her mother in law after her husband dies out of love. She holds love for her mother in law and also for God. God blesses this love by giving her an upright man named Boaz to wed. She actively persues him by going up to him and "uncovering his feet." Boaz ends up being her kinsman redeemer, and we later find the two of them in the lineage of our Savior Christ.

Later, in the New Testament, men are instructed to Love their wives as "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it." Nowhere in this description of love is there room for selfishness, as Christ allowed Himself to be mocked, beaten, and spit upon in order to save us. Christ's example of Love is one of total selflessness and sacrifices. Romantic love, as it pertains to the man and woman, can also be found as sacred in the Song of Solomon, as in graphic terms a woman longs for her husband and her husband for his wife. God includes this to show the way romance should be conducted between a man and a woman in the context of marriage.

Contrast all these things to modern "romance." Let us consider the "dance" music of the day and the contemporary, ever popular "rap" and "Hip-hop" genres. These forms of music include very distorted views of women and also of love. Descriptions of sexual romps and of inappropriate physical contact between unmarried couples abound. Everything is very much of a "right now" mentality and living for the moment. The selflessness demonstrated by our Heavenly Father is gone, replaced by a pleasure-seeking, selfish attitude.

With patience and working towards an end gone and selfishness now abounding, is it any wonder why our culture has taken a turn for the worse in matters of the heart? Love is no longer forever, it is now for the moment.

Now more then ever it is time for the Church to rise up and demonstrate to the culture the proper context and mechanisms for love. Marriage is under serious attack, and we need to reinstate in the youngest generation the importance of this basic, God-created unit. Let us draw together now to show this world what love is all about. "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." With this message let us have our feet shod with the Gospel of Love.

- Copyright © 2005 Steven McFarland

 

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