Let's start with the basics shall we. Proverbs 4:23 says "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." Proverbs 5:15-17 says "Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you." The similarity between these verses is springs. Proverbs 4 describes the heart as the source of the springs of life while Proverbs 5 goes on to say drink from your own springs and don't let them be scattered. Do you see the point? Guard your heart and don't let it scatter. When you give your heart to someone and it doesn't work out and you give your heart again then you are scattering your heart. Proverbs 5 goes on to say in verses 18 and 19 "Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love." If you read the whole passage from Proverbs 4-5 it's clear that what Solomon was saying is guard your heart, don't let it be scattered, and save your love for your wife. It doesn't say the girlfriend or your youth or crush but wife. The Bible gives clear direction that we are to guard our hearts and save love for those we marry after we marry them.
We've lost sight of this truth. We have let it become socially acceptable to have girlfriend/boyfriend relationships when the Bible says "Do not rebuke an older men but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity." (1 Timothy 5:1-2) We've lost sight of treating the opposite sex as siblings. Instead we treat women as we would our wives. Romans 8:29 says "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Because of Christ those who are in Christ are brothers and sisters. To love anyone above that of a brother or sister should be saved until after marriage.
Just imagine what our world would be like if we followed the Biblical principle. Some would argue that life would be "boring" they would say "all the fun out of life has been taken away." First of all if we see anything except Christ as our lives we have something wrong with our relationship with Him. Galatians 2:20 says "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Those in Christ have Christ living in and through them. Second of all if we were to abandon the way of the world(Romans 12:2) and save our love for our wives then we would have less suicide, less heartache, and less people thinking the opposite sex as their life and instead they would look to Christ. But alas we live in a fallen world. A world in which evolution reigns and morals are trampled under feet. But we are called to more... much more. We are called to be different. Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Just by being a Christian you are different but by going the opposite way you stand out and when you stand out people look at you. When people see you as different there are two reactions: 1 persecution, 2 a sincere desire to have what you have that makes you different. Just imagine if every Christian stood out, went the opposite way. Just imagine...
1 Corinthians 13 describes love, the love that a Christian should follow. It is not a love that the world understands or grasps but a love that comes from the heart of God. All the aspects of love are based on... well love but also kindness. When you love someone with this love you don't think about getting a "favor" but think about their honor, their respect, their livelihood. Instead of wanting you give, not emotionally or physically but in true love as Christ loved others. In being a true friend who gives himself even to the point of death. John 15:13 says "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." To lay down your life is ultimately to give up your life in death for the welfare of that person but the only person who could ever do that is Jesus. But we are to lay down our lives, giving our time and resources in our love for them. This kind of love is pure. It is not the kind of love that is to go to your wife/husband and your wife/husband alone.
I encourage you to go out and live life in love in a different manner. Live in emotional purity not giving your heart but giving Christ's love. Live the life that God has called you to live. Don't be like the world but live in Christ. Guard your heart above all things.
