Episode 334: All Done in Love

What does the Bible say about romance? The Bible has been called God’s love letter to humanity. Although it contains harsh imagery and warnings about God’s judgment, the Bible is also filled with creative expressions of love between human beings and God. Consider this example from Psalm 42:1, “As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” But love and romance, though intertwined, are not identical. We can have romance without real love, and we can love without feeling romantic. While passages such as Zephaniah 3:17 describe God’s emotional love for His own, other passages such as 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 detail qualities of love that have nothing to do with the emotions of romance. Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” Dying an agonizing death on a cross for ungrateful sinners was in no way romantic, but it was the ultimate expression of love.

Eros is the type of love that is most closely associated with romance. However, this kind of love is reserved for marriage. What does the Bible say about proper and improper expressions of love that ought to be between a husband and wife?

We share 20 passages of Scripture that offer us insights into true friendship.