A follower of Jesus should have their faith as the center of their life. This should control the decisions they make. They are to love God with all they are. All their physical-ness, intellect and passions.
This should cause a real issue if they date someone who does not share this same core belief.
Why? COMPATIBILITY
In the New Testament Paul refers to animals that are unequally yoked in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 … “do not be unequally yoked, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness, …or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”
While this passage does not specifically refer marriage, it definitely has implications for relationships.
The idea of 2 Corinthians 6 is a couple of incompatible oxen (or other animals) sharing the same yoke (the wooden thing put over animals to pull a plough). Instead of working together to pull the load, they would be working against each other.
A Christian and a non-believer are pulling in fundamentally different directions. One has Jesus as the center of their life and one has something else (whether it be themselves, their family, their job, money, sex... whatever).
Quite simply, they don't run off the same playbook!
If you couldn't share the main thing in your life with the person you are dating, wouldn't that make you incompatible?
If your main identifier was your connection to Jesus, wouldn't it make sense to share that with your partner?
If you based your life decisions on the teachings of Christ (ranging from sex to money) and your partner based their decisions on something else, wouldn't this create conflict?
Finally, these issues don't dissipate over time. What happens if you get married? What about kids?
Malachi 2:15 says that one of the purposes of marriage is Godly offspring. What are the changes of that happening with someone who doesn't believe in Christ?
Life, at best, is greatly more complex due to dating a non-Christian. They have fundamentally alternate outlooks. You wouldn't recommend a die-hard, boot scooting, country music tragic hook up with a hardcore gangster rapper.
Unless one influences the other... But that is for tomorrow...
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