Single, sent & sanctified

Many people who are single feel like they are less than, unworthy or just in a waiting season until they are married. While I felt like this at times too, it’s just not true; we are single, sent & sanctified. 

In case you’re not a listener of the Hallelujah! podcast (which if you aren’t, you should be), we’ve just finished our 6 part singleness series. In this series we discuss singleness and what the bible says about it, how and why we should make the most of it, tips for dating as a single Christian, preparing for marriage and so much more. 

There is so much that can be said about singleness, especially as a Christian, but in our short post today we’ll get a nice introduction to the topic and discover how we are single, sent & sanctified. 

What does the Bible say about singleness?

The first point we can get from the Bible is that singleness is a gift! Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 7:7-9 which says “I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” We see Paul here talking here about being celibate and single and how this was a good thing; a gift. Marriage is not better than being single, as being unmarried isn’t by default better than being married, but he does praise singleness as a gift so it’s clearly something that we should treasure.

The next point that we can get is that when we are single, we can focus on God. The gift of being single allows us to dedicate more of all of our time to God and serving him and this is huge. 1 Corinthians 7:32-34 says “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.” Marriage will also have it’s own way to serve God, but in singleness we have the ability to completely dedicate ourselves to the Lord. 

Another point to note is that while yes, singleness is a gift and has its advantages, ultimately God didn’t want man to be alone. If we look back at Genesis, after God created the world and had created man, he looked at Adam and said that it wasn’t good for man to be alone and that he would make a helper suitable for Him. Even though Adam had the company of God in the garden of Eden, God still established that it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Out of Adam’s rib God created Eve who was able to fulfil his need for companionship. Marriage was established as the two of them came together in the beautiful, lifelong covenant of marriage. One key theme we can see here is that even though Paul speaks very highly of singleness, marriage is realistically the “norm” and is praised throughout scripture. As humans we crave companionship (which is a very healthy desire to have), and marriage is a wonderful blessing from God that we get to enjoy. 

How does singleness as a Christian compare to singleness in the world?

As with all things, any topic as a Christian is vastly different to that of the world and singleness is no different. Sometimes we aren’t aware of the stark differences so it’s important for us to take the time to understand this so we can stand on the truth of God’s word and not fall victim to what the world says about us as a single man or woman.

The world says that when we are single, we are:

• Less than
• Incomplete
• Free to do whatever we want, with whoever we want, whenever we want
• Free to sleep with whoever we want
• Able to focus on loving ourselves

The Bible says that when we are single, we are:

• Worthy and valuable in God’s eyes
• Complete in Christ
• Free to serve God and devote our time to Him
• Free to enjoy the precious gift of sex within the marriage convenant
• Able to focus on loving others as God first loved us

What a huge difference that is! 

Why we should cherish our singleness

The first reason that I think we should cherish our time being single is that there is a time and place for every season and if we spend all of our time desperate to get into the next season we will miss the blessings that God has for us right now. For many of us, marriage will come, and it will be beautiful! But in our singleness we have all the time in the world to grow in our faith, mature, spend time with our brothers and sisters, disciple younger christians, read our bibles, worship, go for long prayer works, and do life with God by our side. 

Another reason we should cherish our singleness is that we can use it as a time of preparation for marriage. If you desire marriage, as I do, our singleness is the best and only time we will ever get to prepare ourselves for marriage and to be a husband or wife. Make the most of this season to discover who you are and what you want in a future spouse, work through any outstanding issues with your family, heal from any past hurts in relationship and get your walk with God into the best place it could possibly be. We want to be able to come into marriage in the best shape possible and this means investing time into our physical, mental and spiritual growth.

Looking for more?

There is SO much more to talk about when it comes to singleness as a Christian so if you’re interested, I suggest you listen to the full episode (link below).