For the most part, I love Christian music. I love the fun worship songs and the intimate, personal songs that really personify everything it means to be a Christian. However, there are some aspects of modern Christian music--and modern Christian thought--that both confuse me and make me cringe at the thought of them. The great aspect that I could never be on board with is being ~in love~ with God and Jesus. I actually have several reasons for that.

First, there is a clear difference between "to be in love with " someone and "to have love for " someone. "To have love for " someone is to show many kinds of love, including ludus (playful ) love, storge (familiar love), philia (affectionate love), and pragma (enduring love). "To be in love with" someone is a type of love that is mainly being romantic or sexual in nature, including eros and sometimes ludus as well. I would never have romantic or sexual love or desire for the one who essentially saved me. Phrases like, "Jesus is my boyfriend" make me cringe because we shouldn't see our Lord and Savior as just a companion to love. Jesus is far more than that. He's the redeemer of our souls. Doesn't he deserve more respect than to be labeled as "boyfriend"?

There's a whole different type of love called agape, or selfless love. That is the kind of love that God has for us as his children, that Jesus had for the church and the kind of love that we should have for each other as children of God that we sometimes don't. In my opinion, that is the kind of love that we should have for God and Jesus, and we should not let that love be clouded by desire or desperation for them. It's not really becoming of anyone to have such a deep desperation for anyone, much less for someone who ought to be feared, revered, and worshiped.

I don't care who you are or what kind of Christian you think you are. There's a clear difference in the kind of love with should have for God and Jesus Christ. It is my belief that the reason we have phrases like "Jesus should be the only man in your life" and "Jesus is my boyfriend" is because the modern church wants to pander to the millennial generation and younger, which is problematic because it is not how you should be referring to Jesus or God.

Jesus did not die for your sins so you could call him your boyfriend in an effort to try and gain some higher moral ground. Jesus is not the only man you should have in your life. We were built to have companions from both males and females.

Jesus literally died to save our souls. Act like it.