six steps ✙

As we have seen, modern thought does not see duty and passion to be compatible or capable of mutually stimulating interdependence. […] This thought is now considered common sense—namely, that love must be the response to spontaneous desire, never a response to a legal oath or promise.

But the Biblical perspective is radically different. Love needs a framework of binding obligation to make it fully what it should be. A covenant relationship is not just intimate despite being legal. It is a relationship that is more intimate because it is legal.