How you answer that may reveal the circumstance that you are currently living in!
Sometimes in Church life marriage is elevated and singleness is silenced or else it is also elevated to an awkward place where singles feel stigmatised within the desire to pastorally help them.
These are difficult things to read and to write about. I tread carefully!
“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.”
1 Corinthians 7:8-9
In answering the question I am thinking of 3 major things as I read these 2 verses.
But first let’s unpack what Paul says.
- Singleness is good. In the nicest world and in some cultures around the world today this it’s important to declare.
- Not everyone has the gift of celibacy.
- Everyone has the freedom to marry and that’s actual;y not that they can’t control themselves as much as they know they don’t have the gift of celibacy/
So in answering the question and looking at these 2 verses I believe this:-
- Embrace your current state with gratitude.
- Be honest about your needs.
- Be free to make choices that support holiness in whatever circumstances you find yourself in.
Missions Paul 