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Introduction
In this blog post, I will talk about the three factors that the apostle Saint Paul once wrote to the Christians in the city of Corinth. I will not write this to a congregation of Christians in one particular setting or city, I will address the whole world or at least those that understands English.
My motif is also slightly different. I am not addressing some local issues but rather how faith, hope and love all connects to Christian dating in the modern world of online dating.
Before I begin this post, I will quote the Holy Bible: “Now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”. (1 Cor 13:13 ESV).
The Greatest Of All The Three Is Love
Love is both the greatest gift to humanity and in human history. Why? Because it brings out the best of a human being. We are all embraced by love from the beginning of our lives and we are carried by the grace of God in love until we live with Him in love.
During our lives here on earth we also get to know that God is love (1 John 4:16) and that He sent His only Son to us, not to judge us but to save us from this world (John 3:16-17) through the Holy Bible, God’s own word to us.
We as humans wants to find someone to love and that is why we have a whole genre of songs that is called love songs. Love is what drives us and motivates us to help each other.
The Holy Bible has two different words for the English word “love” in the original Greek:
agape – which is the special love that God shows His creation, the love that does not want any love back. This is the kind of love that Christians should show each others too.
eros – the human selfish kind of love that wants to love for the sake of being loved and feeling loved back. This is the theme for the love songs, many books, and many films as well.
The Bible, in one of its original tongues, is making us aware of the two kinds of love and that we should separate them. So, the kind of love you are about to expect when you’re dating is not agape-love but rather eros-love.
I just wanted to make these things clear to you first but I do think that you know that there is a difference between the love God shows us and the love you feel for someone else.
So when it comes to the modern world of online dating the word love should mean: Find someone to love and make them loved to fulfil the needs of your own selfish love. The best way to do it is of course by joining a dating website.
There are however two more things that Saint Paul writes about that I will address in this article: Faith and hope.
Having Faith And Hope Is Also Essential
“You have to believe in love in order to find love”, a friend of mine once said.
He is right about one thing: love is not something that you just can sit back and wait for things to happen. Sometimes you need to take action to find love.
This is where faith becomes a part of your love-search and I am not talking about Christian faith exclusively here. No, I am talking about that you should have faith in finding someone to love.
Hope is a different matter. This is something you should have whenever you contact a new person on a dating website. When things are not going the way you want them to, you should also have a lot of hope that they eventually will.
When you’re blue or have been through a break-up you should have faith that things will change and hope that you will meet someone but also remember these words: “Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”. (1 Cor 13:13 ESV).
Concluding Thoughts
I have written my thoughts of how a famous passage from the Holy Bible applies to your online dating. So remember: There are two kinds of love but the love that dating websites are offering is without any doubt the human love that wants to feel love to be able to love someone else.
When things are tough and you feel blue, don’t give up: have faith that you will find someone to love eventually and when you talk with someone new, it’s not wrong to hope that this might be the one. You should have some faith!
Next blog post
My next blog post will be published tomorrow.
It will be what men want in their ideal woman and is one of the ongoing Dating In Real Life articles on this blog.
See you then,
Rickard
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