Dating and Love
The Bible was not written for people who date. Marriages were arranged, most people married young, and nobody was swiping. So this plan is careful. It reads what's there, tells you who it was written to, and lets you work out what it means for a Thursday night with someone you like.
It's in two halves. The first four days are about love and desire: where it comes from, what it is, and what the Bible says about sex, which is more than 'don't' and less than you've been told. Days five and six are about character, the stuff that decides whether a relationship is safe. Day seven is for the single people, and it's not a consolation prize.
Two warnings. Song of Solomon is a love poem and it is not subtle. And 1 Corinthians 7 is Paul giving his own opinion during a crisis, and he says so.
The schedule
Tap a passage to open that book. Read in any translation you like; the app shows each day in Gen Z beside the original.
| Day | Read | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The first 'not good' in the Bible is being alone. Notice that the man names every animal first and none of them fit. The woman is 'comparable', an equal, not an accessory. | The first 'not good' in the Bible is being alone. Notice that the man names every animal first and none of them fit. The woman is 'comparable', an equal, not an accessory. |
| 2 | This gets read at weddings but was written to a church that was fighting. Try reading verses 4 to 7 with a specific person's name in place of 'love' and see which lines hurt. | This gets read at weddings but was written to a church that was fighting. Try reading verses 4 to 7 with a specific person's name in place of 'love' and see which lines hurt. |
| 3 | Desire, in the Bible, described with joy and no apology. 'Love is strong as death' and can't be bought. The 'little foxes' in 2:15 are whatever spoils it early. | Desire, in the Bible, described with joy and no apology. 'Love is strong as death' and can't be bought. The 'little foxes' in 2:15 are whatever spoils it early. |
| 4 | Same poem says don't wake love before it's ready. Paul's reasons for sexual restraint are about not wronging another person and about your body mattering. Neither says desire is dirty. | Same poem says don't wake love before it's ready. Paul's reasons for sexual restraint are about not wronging another person and about your body mattering. Neither says desire is dirty. |
| 5 | Proverbs 31 is a poem about a woman valued for competence and kindness, and it ends by calling charm deceitful. Boaz is judged by how he treats a foreign woman with no leverage. | Proverbs 31 is a poem about a woman valued for competence and kindness, and it ends by calling charm deceitful. Boaz is judged by how he treats a foreign woman with no leverage. |
| 6 | Verse 21 comes first: submit to one another. The husband's instruction is to love the way Christ did, which means giving himself up. Philippians is the same shape: count the other person as better. | Verse 21 comes first: submit to one another. The husband's instruction is to love the way Christ did, which means giving himself up. Philippians is the same shape: count the other person as better. |
| 7 | Paul says 'I have no commandment from the Lord' and gives his judgment: single people have fewer distractions, and marrying is not a sin. Psalm 16 says the good life is already assigned. | Paul says 'I have no commandment from the Lord' and gives his judgment: single people have fewer distractions, and marrying is not a sin. Psalm 16 says the good life is already assigned. |