The Importance Of Courtship

Marriage is a divine system established by God to reflect His love and purpose for mankind, to partake in this divine social life, there are levels of preparations to earn a healthy marriage, and here now, I would want to briefly discuss one of them.

I know some belief systems are against courtship, but that rather public uninspired opinion cannot dissuade the Biblical point of view about courtship.

The question is, what does the Bible say about courtship? Is it a yes or no, if yes, what are the ways, if no what are the reasons?

From the Bible, courtship is a pathway established by God to divinely lead people into a Godly marriage, courtship is a sacred covenant, we can see that Joseph and Mary, were together for about 7 years before marriage.

In the Hebrew culture, the girl child is betrothed at around 12 years, she’s married at 19 – 20 years, it was like that between Joseph and Mary.

Even though she was betrothed at 12, she remained untouched till marriage rites were performed when she was grown.

That period of waiting is called courtship.

Courtship permits people to prepare for lifelong commitment, to build a foundation of friendship, trust and common understanding which in turn ensures a strong marital relationship, see Ephesians 5.

Purity and spiritual growth are the watchwords of courtship, courtship is a phase where two persons come together to seek the will of God as it concerns union, see Corinthians 6:8, and 2 Timothy 2:22.

It’s also not far from understanding how many view courtship in our time, many view it as a certificate to click on things out of the purpose, that people abuse it doesn’t invalidate the importance of courtship.

In courtship there is no heartbreak, because bodily and hearty commitments haven’t been made, see 1 Thessalonians 4, and Proverbs 4:23. In courtship you have an open window to quit or continue completely as you are.

Courtship is strong enough to amend a bad character, if all the divine rules are kept, it has the power to change a life for good, in courtship a wood can become an iron, a bronze can be transformed into gold, there’s a character changing power in courtship, but based on one condition, if it’s built on purity and spiritual growth as seen in Corinthians and Timothy.

Courtship provides the persons involved an equal platform to develop such qualities as humility, patience, and self-control which ensure successful co-existence.

Courtship encourages selfless love, respect and reasonable commitments without expecting anything in return, courtship is also a reflection of Christ’s selfless sacrifice and commitment to His church.

In courtship, make a sacrifice, be selfless, and let your sacrifice expect nothing in return neither in kind, merchandise, heartily nor bodily.

-Kanayo Ebuka