The term “fall in love” describes the opening chapter of a relationship. When we describe our faith in romantic terms, we set believers up for immaturity and failure. But these passages refer to Jesus’ relationship to the church (the body of all believers throughout time) – not to the individual’s relationship to God. Some people refer to Song of Solomon or the “Bride of Christ” metaphor to defend the use of romantic language in describing our faith. So when we say we have fallen in love with Jesus, or we’re having a love affair with Jesus, we are using eros to describe agape. Whenever the Bible refers to God’s love in the New Testament, the word Agape is used. Agape, or God’s love – unconditional, eternal and sacrificial.Philia, which means brotherly love among peers (the City of Philadelphia is named for philia).Eros, or romantic love (we get the word “erotic” from eros).In fact, there are four distinct words that convey the idea of love: New Testament Greek is very precise in how it describes love. The metaphor simply does not convey how God relates to us. The term falling in love implies romance. Never in the 66 books of the Bible are humans encouraged to fall in love with God or Jesus. Here are three more reasons to avoid romantic imagery: It’s unbiblical, it’s unhelpful and it’s uncomfortable. Women are comfortable with the idea of falling in love with a man. When we describe Christianity as a love affair or a sacred romance, we are speaking the native language of women – and gibberish to men. They the largest consumers of romance novels, romantic comedies and relationship magazines. Romantic imagery is much more appealing to the feminine heart. Women are all about romance. They’re trying to draw a contrast between vibrant, living faith and cold, dead religion.īut this imagery has numerous downsides – particularly when it comes to men. Today’s Christians use these words in a attempt to describe the passion and excitement that should be present in our spiritual lives. Why the explosion of romantic imagery in the church? This lovely seasonal bulletin board adorned the lobby: The topic has its own tumblr feed.Ī couple of Sundays ago I visited a small church near my home.
JESUS CULTURE DANCE WITH ME SCRIPTURE HOW TO
There’s a series of books that teaches you how to fall in love with Jesus. Pastor Rick Warren encourages us to do it. There’s a rather inane Facebook page titled “Let’s Fall in Love with Jesus” that’s gathered almost 20,000 likes. I heard another man describing his “passionate love affair with the Savior” at a men’s retreat. “I fell in love with Jesus at the age of 15,” said a man giving his testimony at a banquet I recently attended. This kind of romantic imagery seems to be popping up everywhere. But many pastors and teachers are doubling-down on the relational language – encouraging their flocks to “fall in love with Jesus” or “have a love affair with Jesus.” In a previous post I’ve pointed out how the extra-biblical term “personal relationship with Jesus” has become the #1 metaphor Evangelicals use to describe discipleship.
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