Until you really immerse yourself in the gospel, in the word, in healthy Christian friendships and fellowship,

the world is going to teach you all kinds of messy definitions of love. And we know that,

and this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us. So if we want to learn what love is,

we look at how he loved us

by sending his son as the appreciation for our sins. So we need to soak in that reality and

that love long enough that our love in dating and eventually in marriage begins to look like

that love and not the opposite of that love. So I think that takes time.

Welcome to the Crossway podcast, a show where we sit down with authors each week for thoughtful

interviews about the Bible, theology, church history, and the Christian life.

I'm Matt Tully, and today I'm talking with Marshall Siegel.

Marshall is a writer and serves as managing editor at desiring god.org.

He's also the author of Not Yet Married, the Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating from Crossway.

Today, Marshall and I discuss singleness and dating as a Christian.

He shares some of his own story, including his struggle with contentment as a single person, how to

deal with feelings of guilt and shame related to your past, and advice for discerning whether

or not you and your significant other are ready to take that next big step and tie the knot.

Let's get started.

Well, Marshall, thank you so much for joining me today on the Crossway podcast.

Thanks for having me.

So tell us a little bit about your own story.

How long have you been married now?

I got married in 2015, so we just celebrated five years.

...