Kiss with caution

By Matthew Fier

In the 21st century, Christians often times fail to conquer the juggernaut called dating. We use terms and ideologies our grandparents used from the early 1900s, while following the timelines and guidelines of our generation and advice of non-believers.

Here’s an interesting declaration: It’s not what you do while you date, it’s how you date. Keep in mind, no matter what you do, you should remember to honor and sanctify Christ.

A youth pastor back home once told me, “If you date in purity, then it’s much easier to listen to God if He says no.” So what is purity?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “You not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Honor your bodies. If kissing leads you to sexual immorality than simply put: flee from it. (1 Corinthians 6:18).

If you feel you can kiss because it shows your affection and can keep your hands, bodies, etc. as vessels of the Holy Spirit, honoring God in everything you do, then do it.

Take your time, and put the getting to know each other while living together to live like Christ far above physical affection. For me, the next woman I kiss will be my wife, but that’s my choice. Do what you need to do to honor Christ and live for Him.

Protect your brother's/sister's purity: Don't kiss

By: Jenna Plumb

Do you kiss your brother or sister? The desire or thought to kiss your sibling probably does not even cross your mind. At least, not kissing in the same way most people think of kissing when it comes to dating relationships. However, for Christians appropriate dating conduct is not far from familial.

The members of the opposite sex are not primarily potential mates — they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Consequentially, Christians have a God-given mandate to protect the purity and dignity of these God-given siblings to the best of their ability. Whether kissing makes one person stumble or not is irrelevant to the actual root of the question.

When Christians are told to avoid sexual immorality the Bible does not specify which actions qualify as crossing into “immoral” and which do not. As a result, Christians have been incredibly guilty of redrawing the line.

In the end it is not actually about if one passes the bar of godly approval. Instead, it is more about whether one restrains physical desire in a determination to honor the precious person one has the privilege of conducting a relationship with. People commonly self-justify the practice of kissing in their dating relationships with some variation of “it’s not exactly sinful.” However, the better question is, how is kissing honoring or protecting the purity of one’s brothers or sisters in the Body of Christ?