In the last post, I started looking at what 1 Corinthians 7 says about singleness. This chapter really is the only place in Scripture where this topic is directly addressed.
1 Corinthians 7:25-40 is the next part of this chapter that talks about singleness. Paul specifically addressed virgins and those unmarried here. For the sake of space, I'm not going to quote the whole passage here, but I encourage you to read it before you read the rest of this post.
The general point of the passage is that while it's not wrong to marry, there advantages to not marrying. The main advantage that Paul talks about is undivided focus a single person can have. While a married person has another person they are thinking about, a single person is free to focus only on the things of God. Paul encourages singleness here, but not because he says marriage is wrong or sinful or something to be avoided.
I think Paul's intent in this passage is to encourage all to put their focus and attention on what God has given them. If one if married, then a certain amount of that attention and focus is on their spouse and on living in their marriage according to God's ways and plans. If one is single, then all of it in on pleasing only God and serving Him with their lives.
One of the common misapplications I've heard and seen, but thankfully never personally experienced, is the assumption that a single person should do anything and everything asked of them by the church. Basically, the idea that they must have more time and energy and should be spending it all on whatever the church decides they should do.
Being single does not mean someone doesn't have preferences and gifts, and doesn't have a right to say no to some things. God gifts all people and gives them different things to do and we need to allow that.
As a single person, I know my ability to serve God and my freedom to do things is very different from what it looks like for my married friends. I'm also very aware that there are some things I shouldn't be doing in the church because God didn't create me to do those things well, even though they would fit in my calendar.
Whether single or married, we need to respect people's decisions about how they use their time to serve God. Being single doesn't mean a person has to do everything. Just as being married doesn't mean there are only certain things a person can do.
As I look at all Paul has to say in 1 Corinthians 7, the conclusion I come to is that Paul valued both singleness and marriage. He saw some very good things that come with being single and he elevated singleness because of that. His teaching here and elsewhere also makes it clear that he didn't see marriage as bad or wrong.
If we're going to elevate singleness in our churches today from the place it has too often been - seen as just a waiting period - to something of value, then it's going to require that we wrestle with some other realities of how we think. I will be exploring these in some of my upcoming posts.
In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what Scripture says. What do you see in 1 Corinthians 7?
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