Tuesday 13 August, 2013

32 I don’t want you to have anything to worry about. A single man is concerned about the Lord’s matters. He wants to know how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the matters of this world. He wants to know how he can please his wife. 34 His concerns pull him in two directions. A single woman or a virgin is concerned about the Lord’s matters. She wants to serve the Lord with both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the matters of this world. She wants to know how she can please her husband. 35 I’m saying those things for your own good. I’m not trying to hold you back. I want you to be free to live in a way that is right. I want you to give yourselves completely to the Lord.

Singleness!  Paul makes a strong case for singleness and its benefits in staying fully devoted to Jesus.  Marriage provides distractions, caring for your spouse and in most cases your children.  This ‘distracts’ us and Paul wants us to be free of these ‘concerns’.

Paul doesn’t want to ‘restrict’ people, he is saying these things for our good.  That is an interesting thought because in our society marriage is held as more desirable than singleness and to think that being single could possibly be for our good, well…  Yet Paul has his reasons, and so does God in giving us all this encouragement.

So what does it mean for us.  Well if you’re married stay that way!  If you’re single, if you can live with the pressures of singleness then stay that way, because you have more time, focus and opportunity to serve the Lord.  Paul is not against marriage, he is for the work of the Gospel, and so much so he wants our undivided attention to the Lord.

Father, help me not to be distracted form the work of the Gospel but to serve you wholeheartedly!

Written by Ps. Richard Botta