God’s Vision of the Dignity and Beauty of Singleness Last Sunday, I preached on the Reformation of the Family to demonstrate how the reformers restored the dignity and beauty of marriage and parenting to the church. I shared with our daughter Ruthanne, a few years ago, that I did not know anyone who stewarded their singleness more wisely and beautifully than her. So I asked her if she would be willing to contribute a few paragraphs on the subject of singleness.
“Singleness is a gift, given out of love and care for us by God, our good Father ─ 1 Corinthians 7. What we believe about the gift of singleness will reflect what we believe about the Giver. Singleness offers many opportunities as a gift: an opportunity to be undistracted in serving the Lord, unrestrained in seeking opportunities for the gospel, and to know the richness of the love of Christ through the church family. It testifies to the world that the promised presence of Christ alone satisfies the heart and that this life is not all there is.
“The temptation is to treat singleness as a transitory season or as a sub-par way to live life. If this is the case, we are not only unthankful for the good gift, and will consequently miss the goodness of it, but we doubt the Giver of the Gift, the goodness of our heavenly Father. Singleness should be affirmed and celebrated by the church – supported by the church family; because the goal of life isn’t marriage but the worship of Christ, regardless of season or life stage.
“When we treat singleness as a problem that needs to be solved or season to endure, we are looking at it through a secular lens. We are saying that romantic hope is fundamental to a full life, and that to live a life without a potential romantic hope is unbearable. But the point of life isn’t to experience romantic fulfillment; it’s to worship and treasure Christ and to worship Him with this gift.
“When we daily pursue Christ and desire to know more of His loveliness, we will find that our singleness is not a restraint but freedom. Freedom to not live for ambitions that end with self, but freedom to know the joy of living for God in our singleness.”
~ Ruthanne Kamimura
