God’s Good Design for Marriage and Singleness – Part 2

Let’s dive into God’s Word, which, by the way, we’re also glad to give you a copy of if you don’t have a Bible. But we’ve looked over the last few months at the first two chapters of the Bible and seen so much of God’s good design for our lives—for creation, for humanity, for sexuality, for work, for rest, for marriage. And today, we’re going to look at God’s good design for singleness.

And you might wonder, well, what does Genesis 2 have to say about singleness? Because it seems like Adam and Eve got married pretty quickly once they saw each other. And that question is going to lead us on a journey from the start of creation all throughout Scripture, including some things we’ve seen before in places like 1 Corinthians 7. So get ready to take notes, as we live in a day where an increasing number of people are single.

So about seventy-give years ago, you look at the data, the percentage of married couples in the United States peaked with almost 80% of households headed by a husband and a wife together. Today, that 80% number is well under 50%. Significantly less people are married, either through divorce or never getting married or prolonging marriage until later in life. So what do we think about this shift? Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? How does God’s Word address singleness?

And hopefully the answer is better than how we as the church have addressed it. You compare Christian books on marriage with Christian books on singleness, and it’s interesting. Very few marriage books argue that marriage is a good thing; that’s assumed. Instead, they just talk about how to deal with all the problems in marriage. 

Books on singleness, though, seem to imply that singleness is a problem. They describe how to make the most of singleness until the right person comes along. In other words, the solution to the problem of singleness is marriage. And once you get married, you’ll have all kinds of problems, and you can read all the marriage books. There has to be a better answer than this. 

And the good news is there is a better answer than this. Much like what we talked about in marriage last week, I want to show you four truths from God’s Word about singleness. And remember, we talked about this last week: If you’re married, you need this Word from God for today. So don’t check out. First, because no one who is married today is guaranteed to be married tomorrow. And neither you or your spouse are guaranteed breath tomorrow. And second, because married men and women are responsible for encouraging our single brothers and sisters in Christ. 

So a single sister recently shared with me a liturgy for a single person going to church. And you can search for it. I don’t have time to read the whole prayer, but at one point it says—I’m gonna put this up here on the screen … “Some days, though surrounded by a gathering, I sit alone in church and feel unseen. You sit beside me there. Let me rest in you.” And then it goes on to say, “On other days I feel welcomed and known.” But reading this whole liturgy was a good reminder to put ourselves in others’ shoes. And these are the shoes of around half the people in this gathering. From children and students to young adults to older adults, and everywhere in between. 

Now, some of you who are single might be thinking, “Well, David, you’re married, and I’m supposed to listen to you talk about singleness?” And this is where I would offer just a gentle reminder that my ability or authority, or any pastor’s ability or authority, to preach on a topic does not revolve around my or any other pastor’s experiences, but around God’s Word. If that was not the case, I would need to be an expert on everything, which I am not. And surely you would not come just to hear my expertise on everything. I have no desire to share with you my thoughts on singleness today. I want to show you what God says. So please, by all means, check everything I say to see if it accurately represents God’s Word. And if it’s coming from here, then you can trust it’s from him, not from me.

And interestingly, if you were here when we talked about marriage last week, you’re going to see striking similarities in the truths we’re about to see regarding singleness, because they reflect a beautifully parallel picture to what God says about marriage. So let’s listen to him.

1. God Designed Singleness as a Good Gift

Truth number one, God designs singleness as a good gift. God designs singleness as a good gift. Let me show you this straight from God’s Word. Because on multiple occasions in this series, we’ve now read Genesis 1:26–27: “… God said, ‘Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.’”

And I want to point out here what I hope is plain. Identity as a person made in the image of God does not hinge on your gender, your marital status, or your parental status, for that matter. You have intrinsic dignity from God, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, a wife or a husband, a mom or a dad. Your marital status does not determine your identity or dignity before God.

Now what’s interesting is, right after this, we read in Genesis 1:28, “… God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth …” So immediately, God starts talking about procreation, making babies.

In Genesis 2, what we saw last week is God’s design for how that happens—marriage. Genesis 2:24: “A man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” 

And as man and woman come together as one flesh in marriage, they multiply. That’s the whole picture that Genesis 1:28 is talking about. And this is really important for us to see, because as we keep reading throughout the Old Testament, the blessing of God is often tied to husbands and wives having children, multiplying.

Look at this. When God forms his people in the Old Testament, the old covenant, look at what he promises them in Genesis 15. God brought Abraham, the father of the people of Israel, outside and said, “Look toward heaven and number the stars if you’re able to number them. Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Genesis 15:5). God said, I’m gonna give you offspring, innumerable children and grandchildren, which necessitated marriage to Abraham’s wife, Sarah. And God gives this same promise of offspring through marriage to Isaac in Genesis chapter 26:3, to Jacob in Genesis chapter 28:14.

It’s interesting. Some of the most tense moments in the initial stories of the Bible revolve around barrenness. It was a curse to be barren. Sarah was initially barren; Rachel was initially barren. And I say “curse” because your family legacy stopped if you didn’t have children, which means you didn’t want to be barren in the Old Testament—which means you didn’t want to be single. Barrenness and singleness were like a curse, which heightens the honor we have for prophets like Jeremiah or Elijah or Elisha, whom God called to singleness in the Old Testament when that was so undesirable in that day. Why? Think about it: Because God’s blessing on the multiplication of his people came through marriage and childbearing, which made sense based on the way the old covenant worked. The people of God would fill the earth primarily through having offspring, and you couldn’t do that if you were single. You were out.

But then watch this. Listen to Isaiah chapter 53:7, which is a promise of Jesus coming to die on a cross. It says, “He,” talking about Jesus, prophecy about Jesus, “was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence.  and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:7–10).

Did you catch that? Isaiah is talking about a single man, Jesus, who would be cut off from the land of the living as he died with no physical descendants. Yet, “he shall see his offspring.” That’s the exact same word that we read in Genesis 15. How is it possible for a single person to have offspring? Well, his offspring are those he died to save. This is the gospel. 

Pay attention really close, particularly if you’re exploring Christianity. The good news of the Bible is that God sent Jesus to die on a cross for sinners so that anyone who trusts in him can become a child of God. Which means, so follow this, this is so important, Christianity is not about being born into a Christian family. It’s about anybody from anywhere, from any family or nation, being born again, receiving new life through faith in Jesus. Nobody is born Christian. The only way truly, biblically, to become a Christian is to be born again, spiritually, through faith in Jesus.

And so for all who trust in Jesus and become children of God, realize what’s happening here. God is foretelling in the Old Testament how his family will multiply—ultimately, not through procreation, but through salvation. Not through people getting married and having babies, but through people sharing the gospel and leading others to new life in Jesus. And that changes everything. 

Don’t miss how the coming of Jesus and the New Testament, the new covenant, radically changes the picture of God’s blessing. It’s foretold in the very next chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah 54:1 says, “‘Sing, O barren one who did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,’ says the Lord.” There’s actually more children promised here to the barren one who trusts in God and leads others to life in God than the one who’s in labor who has physical children.

You get two chapters over … Isaiah 56:3: “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people’; and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, ‘I will give in my house, within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’” Did you hear that? Eunuchs, don’t worry. You’re single, but you’re not a dry tree. Your name will not be cut off. Your name will be better than having sons and daughters, because God’s kingdom comes through spiritual offspring, not ultimately dependent on your physical offspring. 

Now, all this was promised in the Old Testament, but it wasn’t a part of Old Testament culture, which is why people were astonished when Jesus came on the scene and he started talking about marriage. And in Matthew chapter 19:10, listen to this. “The disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’” And Jesus stunned them with his response. He said, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this, receive it” (Matthew 19:10–12).

The whole picture here is not just talking about physical unity; it’s talking about singleness. And it’s saying, Jesus is saying, It’s good to be single for the sake of the kingdom. And the disciples were shocked. This was revolutionary. In the Old Testament, God’s people multiplied almost exclusively through marriage and children. But now in the New Testament, the kingdom of heaven is expanding regardless of whether you’re single or married.

All that leads to 1 Corinthians, where Paul opens chapter 7, and look at what he writes. “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.’” So follow this, because sexual relations are designed by God for marriage … and Paul, who by the way was single, just said, It is good to not have sexual relations. In other words, it’s good not to be married. And then he goes further than that as the chapter goes on. He says in verse 7, “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God. One of one kind and one of another.” Paul says, I wish everybody was single. But we have different gifts. One of one kind, one of another.

You see that word? It’s so significant. And as you keep reading, Paul actually takes it to another level. Watch this, verse 38: “So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.” Then a couple of verses later, he describes a single woman saying, “Yet in my judgment, she is happier if she remains as she is” (1 Corinthians 7:40).

This is God’s Word, using “better” and “happier” to describe singleness. This is fascinating, especially when you look at the whole of Scripture. And again, it doesn’t mean marriage is bad. We saw that last week. The point is, and this is what Paul is continually emphasizing in this whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 7 on marriage and singleness … look with me at verse 17. It says, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” Part of the problem in 1 Corinthians 7 is addressing people who thought, I’d rather be what I’m not. People who are married thinking, Marriage is not all I thought it would be. I’d rather be single. People who were single thinking, I’d rather be married. And the Bible is saying, stop and celebrate the good gift, the assignment, the calling of God in your life. 

That doesn’t mean that if you’re single, it’s wrong to desire a husband or wife. First Corinthians 7 actually acknowledges that desire while also saying, as long as you’re single, trust that God, the good Lord of your life, is assigning and calling you for your good. Because God doesn’t give bad gifts. Singleness, biblically, is not a state to be endured as you wait for something better. And as a side note, I’ve mentioned this before, but parents: Success for our kids is not necessarily them getting married. We need to be really careful not to implicitly or explicitly communicate to our children that marriage is the ideal, and singleness is second best, when that is not true in God’s Word.

I pray every week for my kids that they would either marry a godly wife or husband, or thrive in singleness because both are good gifts. If the Commanders beat the Eagles or the Cowboys, both are good gifts. If the Caps beat the Flyers or the Penguins, both are good gifts. If the Wizards beat anybody, it’s a good gift,  which means that if someone is single and gets married, then they exchange one gift from Go— one good gift from God—for another good gift from God. Or if someone is married and, for example, their spouse passes away, then even amidst deep grief, they are exchanging one good gift from God for another good gift from God. God doesn’t give bad gifts.

This is not like that gift at Christmas that you want to return as soon as you open it. God is saying, I have good designs in both singleness and marriage, which means marriage really isn’t the goal. And singleness really isn’t the goal. God is the goal, which leads to truth number two …

2. God Designed Singleness as a Powerful Picture of the Gospel

So I need to pick up the pace here. We saw this last week about marriage, how God designs a husband’s love for his wife to be a picture of Jesus’ love for the church; how God designs a wife’s love for her husband to be a picture of the church’s love for Jesus … which might lead you to think, Well, I wanna portray the gospel, so I wanna get married. But God also designs singleness to portray the gospel in ways that marriage doesn’t.

Think about it. Singleness uniquely portrays our ultimate identity in Christ. We live in a world that says you need a spouse to complete you. Or you need sexual activity to fulfill you. But biblical singleness declares to the world neither of those things is true. Biblical singleness declares to the world that we are complete in Christ, regardless of marital status or sexual activity. Isaiah 54, John 3, Revelation 19—they all describe the Lord as a husband to his people who is more satisfying and more eternal than any husband or wife on this earth could ever be. Singleness says to the world, I find my ultimate joy in Jesus. In him, I have everything I need in a way that marriage doesn’t portray the same [way].

Amy Carmichael,  in her singleness once said, “There is joy, joy found in nowhere else when we can look up into Christ’s face, when he says to us, “Am I not enough for thee, mine own? With a true yes, Lord, you are more than enough.” Singleness uniquely portrays our ultimate identity in Christ, and singleness uniquely portrays our eternal identification with the church.

So, yes, we value physical family, as we should, biblically. At the same time, don’t forget: All physical family relationships in this world, as great as they are, are temporary, including marriage. Jesus makes this clear. When he’s asked about marriage in heaven, Matthew 22:30, he says, “In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” In other words, marriage is an institution for this world that will not be in the next world. So married people are only married in this life. Then for billions and trillions of years, we’re all going to be single. Marriage is temporary, but relationship to Jesus and his church is timeless. And singleness uniquely portrays that reality—eternal identification with the body of Christ. Which then leads to truth number three:

3. God Designed Singleness to Depend on His Grace 

And this is where I wanna pull in Paul’s warnings from 1 Corinthians regarding singleness … 1 Corinthians 7 … in two ways in particular.

To Guard Against Unholy Sexual Desires

One, we need God’s grace to guard against unholy sexual desires. Now this is obviously true for all of us, whether we’re single or married. But 1 Corinthians 7 emphasizes this specifically for singles. So watch this. In 1 Corinthians 6, so right before 1 Corinthians 7, the Bible says to all people, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. The sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18–20).

Now, that was totally countercultural in Corinth, and it’s totally countercultural in the United States. In a culture that says it’s okay, it’s good, it’s even necessary to indulge your sexual desire outside of biblical marriage, God says, No, you flee!

Run from any and all sexual immorality, which we’ve seen before refers to any sexual thinking, desiring, or acting outside of marriage.

And it’s right after Paul writes this … so remember, the chapter division wasn’t in the original letter … it’s just there to help us … so right after, Paul says, Flee from sexual thinking, desiring, acting outside of marriage … he says in 1 Corinthians 7:1, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it’s good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:1–2). In other words, if you want to indulge in sexual activity—thinking, desiring, acting—then get married and do so with your wife or your husband. But as long as you’re single, don’t. Flee. Which requires God’s grace, God’s help—that God promises to give by His Holy Spirit who dwells in you.

And this world desperately needs single followers of Christ who will counter the cultural lie that sexual expression is okay or even necessary for ultimate fulfillment in life. So singles, don’t settle for compromise in your life. In this culture, whether it’s with someone else or on a screen, don’t do it. By the grace of God in you, flee sexual immorality. Let God’s grace and God’s Spirit in you guard you from all unholy sexual desires. And I should add at this point, some of you might be thinking through all this, Well, there’s single people and there’s married people, but what about dating people?

 And the answer to that biblically is, there’s no third category. You’re either married or you’re single. And it’s not that dating is wrong, but if you’re dating, you’re still in the single category. So don’t act like you’re married. We don’t have time to do a whole section on dating here, but particularly under this umbrella of guarding against unholy sexual desires, I did a whole video on this that you can find at mcleanbible.org/sexuality. But if you are dating or engaged, if you are not married to somebody else, then do not do with that person what only married couples do with each other.

I’ll put it this way: Would it be right for me to kiss someone who is not my spouse? The answer is clearly no. Then why would it be right for you to kiss someone who’s not your spouse? You say, Well, they might be my spouse. And if that’s the case, then make them your spouse and kiss them a lot, because God has designed marriage for that, but not singleness. Flee any sexual thinking, desire. This is straight from God. We read it in our Bible reading yesterday as a church. “This is the will of God … [You want to know the will of God for your life?] … your sanctification.” (1 Thessalonians 4:2). Flee sexual immorality.

And we need God’s grace to help us do that. And we need God’s grace to guard against unholy, selfish desires. And again, we all need to guard against unholy, selfish desires, whether we’re single or married.

To Guard Against Selfishness

But I want to bring a quote in here from John Stott, a stalwart preacher and author and leader in the church over the last century, who was single for his seventy-plus years of life. He said, “Apart from sexual temptation, the greatest danger which I think we face as singles is self-centeredness. We may live alone, may have total freedom to plan our own schedule with nobody else to modify it or even give us advice. And if we’re not careful, we may find the whole world revolving around ourselves.” And again, that’s not saying married people don’t also struggle with selfish desires. But listen to this admonition, specifically to singles, in 1 Corinthians 7:35. “I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint on you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.” Guard against unholy, selfish desires that would pull you away from undivided devotion to the Lord.

Elizabeth Elliot, who became a widow early into her marriage when her husband was martyred, said, “My most earnest of all pleas to singles is the abandonment of the self. Surrender to Christ all unfulfilled longings and unequivocal willingness to receive whatever God assigns. Life becomes not only far simpler, but surprisingly joyful and free.” Which leads to this last truth about singleness …

4. God Designed Singleness for the Spread of His Glory

So last week, we said the starting point for marriage is realizing marriage exists for God more than it exists for us. And singleness exists for God more than it exists for us. Because everything ultimately revolves around God, which we saw last week is good news because God desires our good and knows better than we do what is best for our lives. And 1 Corinthians 7 highlights this over and over again when it comes specifically to singleness. 

Look at the specific reasons God gives to delight in singleness for his glory. God says delight in singleness because of the times we’re in and the mission we’re on. 

And I should point out, these are very different reasons than the world gives for delighting in singleness. So to be clear, I don’t think that the number of singles in our country has risen because a bunch of people have suddenly adopted a biblical theology of singleness. We live in a world that says, Delight in singleness so that you’re not tied down to one person, so that you can sleep around with multiple people, so that you can do whatever you want, whether that’s prolonging adolescence in your 20s and 30s or pursuing a career and doing all you want to do and earning all you want to earn first. That’s what the world says. That’s not what God’s Word says about singleness.

Delight in Singleness Because of the Times We’re In

Listen to 1 Corinthians 7:26–27: “I think that in view of the present distress, it’s good for a person to remain as he is. So if you’re bound to your wife, don’t seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.”

Then he says in verse 29, “This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. For the present form of this world is passing away.” The Bible is telling us here, Keep things in perspective, because this world, including marriage in this world, is not going to last. Even a marriage that lasts fifty years, praise God, in this life is passing away. And there’s coming a day very soon, our lives are all amiss, and there’s coming a day really soon when everything in this world will be gone. So live with urgency on mission while you still have breath here. 

That’s what Jesus meant when he talked earlier in Matthew 19 about being eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom. Yes, the commission in Genesis 1:28 was to be fruitful and multiply, but the commission in Matthew 28 is to go and make disciples of all the nations. This is how the kingdom of God expands, not just by being married and having babies in your nation, but by going and making disciples—leading people to Jesus in all the nations. So let this be your single-minded aim. 

It’s so interesting. When you look at the spread of the gospel in history, starting in Scripture, it is filled with stories of single brothers and sisters, like Paul and Luke, who wrote most of the New Testament; Silas, Titus, Apollos, Lydia, Phoebe, Phillip’s four unmarried daughters, all the way to missionaries like Amy Carmichael—I quoted from earlier; leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Stott. Rena Taylor is a single missionary in Africa. She wrote, “Being single has meant that I am free to take risks that I might not take were I a mother of a family dependent on me. Being single has given me freedom to move around the world without having to pack up a household first. And this freedom has brought to me moments that I would not trade for anything else this side of eternity.”

So I’m not saying, and Scripture’s certainly not saying, that only those who are single should take risks or be missionaries in unreached parts of the world.

But Christian history is filled with people who spread the gospel in the world, not in spite of their singleness, but because of their singleness. Unquestionably, without question, God desires to use your gift of singleness at this moment to lead sons and daughters to know and love and worship him. And that is a goal worth living for today.

So I won’t name them, because I don’t want to embarrass them, but I’m thinking right now about multiple single brothers and sisters in this church family who are investing in my teenagers and my children’s spiritual lives through NextGen Ministries. And I am so thankful for the way they’re passing the gospel on to the next generation through their singleness, not in spite of it. And that’s not to say only singles should serve in NextGen ministries. I praise God for married couples who are doing the same. The point is, let’s not lose sight of the mission we’re on. And let’s steward whatever gift God has given us toward that end. Which leads to other reasons to delight in singleness …

Delight in Singleness to Be Undistracted in Our Affections and Undivided in Our Devotion

Because we want to be undistracted in our affections and undivided in our devotion. So we’ve already seen that language of being undivided in our devotion. But listen to what the Bible says right before that. It says, 1 Corinthians 7:32, “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. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:32–75).

Again, Paul’s aim here is not to disparage marriage and all that married men have to do for their wives, or married women have to do with their husbands. Do not amen if you are married! Instead, he’s saying to singles, You are even less tied to this world than the married man or woman. So take advantage of that. This is true for young singles.

I think of students, so teenagers, college students, and young adults who have opportunities, particularly right before or during or after college, to go and make the gospel known in the world that you may never have again. Take advantage of those opportunities. Don’t let this time pass by. Students, plan to spend at least a summer, if not a year or more, somewhere in the world where there’s urgent need for the gospel.

And then singles of all ages and stages of life, how can you steward your lack of attachment to family in this moment to lead others around you and far from you to the family of God? Make this your single desire—to use God’s gift of singleness as long as he gives it to you for his great glory in the world, right around you and far from you. All in anticipation … so this is where we ended with marriage last week, but it’s even more poignant when you think about singleness this week… all in anticipation of an ultimate wedding day to come. Revelation 19. 

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” (Revelation 19:6–9)

That’s where the Bible started, right? Remember? God blessed them, said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.” We just walked through all the Scripture, from that first chapter … all the scripture … seeing the portrait God has painted—yes, of the value of marriage and babies and multiplying and filling the earth, but in a much greater way, in a way that will last far beyond this world … in a way that will last millions and trillions of years. Give your life leading people to Jesus, whether you’re married or you’re single.

And singles, see the unique stewardship you’ve been given in this, in anticipation of the day when people from every nation, tribe, and tongue will gather around and experience the eternal blessing of God in marriage covenant with Jesus. That day is what we’re all living for.

So marriage here really is not the goal. This marriage is the goal. So let’s live today, wherever God has called, assigned us, in anticipation of this day.

 And let’s live today to lead others to know Jesus on this day.

Questions for Reflection

So that all leads to a few questions I want to invite you to reflect on today. So one, if you are single, then what specific steps can you take this week to more faithfully steward your singleness for God’s glory? Knowing that’s from his Word, exactly what he’s not just calling, but inviting you to do for his glory and for your good.

And then, if you are married, what specific steps can you take this week to serve or encourage, to build up single brothers and sisters in Christ for God’s glory?

What specific steps can you take this week to be the body of Christ to a much bigger picture of family than what physical family represents?

And then, finally, as a general question here at the close of this entire series, How is God calling you specifically to trust his good design for your life?

And for some of you, God is calling you to make a decision today to trust him as the Savior and Lord of your life. I want to encourage you: God loves you. His design for your life is infinitely good. He’s worthy of all your trust. Don’t go another day without trusting him with your life.

And then for all who know Jesus as Lord, but you’re struggling to trust his good design in any way in your life, I want to encourage you during these next couple moments just to pause before him and meditate on his trustworthiness as you lay down every facet of your life before him. Trust and learn with all your heart, and stop leaning on your own understanding—Proverbs 3:5.

Observation (What does the passage say?)

• What type of writing is this text?
  _{(Law? Poetry or Wisdom? History? A letter? Narrative? Gospels? Apocalyptic?)}
• Are there any clues about the circumstances under which this text was originally written?
• Are there any major sub-sections or breaks in the text that might help the reader understand the focus of the passage?
• Who is involved in the passage and what do you notice about the specific participants?
• What actions and events are taking place? What words or themes stand out to you and why?
• Was there anything about the passage/message that didn’t make sense to you?

Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)

• How does this text relate to other parts of the Scriptures
  _{(e.g., the surrounding chapters, book, Testament, or Bible)?}
• What does this passage teach us about God? About Jesus?
• How does this passage relate to the gospel?
• How can we sum up the main truth of this passage in our own words?
• How did this truth impact the hearers in their day?

Application (How can I apply this to passage to my life?)

• What challenged you the most from this week’s passage? What encouraged you the most?
• Head: How does this passage change my understanding of the Lord? (How does this impact what I think?)
• Heart: How does this passage correct my understanding of who I am to the Lord? (How should this impact my affections and what I feel?)
• Hands: How should this change the way I view and relate to others and the world? (How does this impact what I should do?)
• What is one action I can take this week to respond in surrender and obedience to the Lord?

[Note: some questions have been adapted from One to One Bible Reading by David Helm]