1 Corinthians 7. In writing to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul records the duties of the husband and wives and marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, but in doing so, Paul inserts some of his most passionate speech in a way that simply does not stand out to us today the way it would have to the Christians of Corinth at that time. Some of these verses in 1 Corinthians 7 would have virtually seemed to come to life, leapt from the page, grabbed the readers by the ears, and drawn their nose down to the sacred text to absorb some almost unimaginable truths to them. Finishing in verse 5, there's a section in regard to marriage, but then Paul quickly shifts and he says in verse 6, I speak this by permission and not of commandment. In other words, in outlining the Christian life of marriage, Paul is saying what you might do, not what you must do. Understand, he's not saying that if you're married, you have a choice about being faithful and obedient. He's going a step further back from that, saying you have a choice about whether or not to marry. And here's why. 1 Corinthians 7, verses 7 through 9. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. I say, therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn. Look down, if you would, at verses 32 through 35. He picks up this issue again. He says, but I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But he that is married careth for the things that are of this world, how he may please his wife. There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. You may, Paul says, be married, or you may remain single if your singleness serves the purpose of glorifying God. This truth, this teaching would have been shocking, perhaps even scandalous to the original audience. Keep in mind, there were essentially two groups of people who were intended to read this at Corinth. There are Jewish Christians who had a background in Judaism which taught them that an unmarried man was incomplete, and that a woman without children was virtually worthless. There was such an expectation that you would marry and have children that if you didn't, in the Jewish culture, they wouldn't just say you failed to have children. They would say you murdered your offspring. Gentile Christians in Corinth would also have been shocked. They would have just read this and wondered, how? How can an unmarried Christian live righteously in this world of ours? It's not an exaggeration to say that based on what we know, that there was no other city on earth where living single, celibate, and a pure life would have been more of a challenge in first century Korea. Brothels were everywhere. Prostitutes served not as a scandalous indulgence, but as a way to worship their false gods. No matter which one of those groups read this letter, whether it was Jewish-cultured Christians or Gentile Christians, the message that Paul writes, which is essentially, I wish everyone would remain single, would have been astounding to their worldview. And perhaps it's astounding to us today as we think, well, is this really the same apostle Paul who wrote such high prose about the beauty and typology of marriage in Ephesians 5? And yeah, that's him. Paul doesn't despise marriage. He obviously sees marriage as a way to conform to Jesus Christ and point to the glorious realities of his work for us. But he also sees, and Paul experiences himself, that that's not the only way to glorify God. There is another opportunity distinct from marriage. that is not only a way to glorify God, it also is approved by God as a way to serve Him. And it is by no means inferior to marriage. God promises faithful Christians who are single blessings beyond that which a spouse and family could provide. if they use that singleness faithfully in service to Him. What happens most often when someone is single by choice, understand by choice, It usually displays itself in one of two extremes. The first extreme is very negative. It's being single out of this juvenile sense of individuality and selfishness. Some people are so self-absorbed that they would never seriously consider sharing their life with someone else just because they're unwilling to let go and make that kind of a sacrifice for another. The other extreme is more positive. It's being single out of devotion to the Lord. It's a willingness to sacrifice the benefits of marriage exactly for the sake of others. That they, as Paul says in our text, that they may attend upon the Lord without distraction. It's unfortunate that the second group often gets shunned by the very people who should support them. Think about the bravery involved in that, especially in Paul's day. I mean, there was no welfare system. When you got older, when you got sick, all you had was family to take care of you. There's no structure like health insurance. And so giving up your life to be single to serve the Lord was a massive risk. It's a brave undertaking. Folks, it is a radical sacrifice by people willing to risk everything to serve God. Single Christians have an extraordinary call of God on their life. And it will be rewarded if they embrace it faithfully. I want you to see this morning that single Christians are approved by God, single Christians are complete in Christ, and single Christians can be embraced by everyone. First, let's talk about the fact that unmarried Christians are approved by God. In fact, in the text here, Paul even says that state of being is preferable but only if it is a gift given to you by God himself. Look again at verse 7. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man has his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. Singleness is not for everybody. It's for those to whom God has given that gift. There are differences of gifts and Paul's clear here that not every person is gifted with singleness and in that he is echoing the teaching of Jesus himself. Look back at Matthew 19 for a moment. We looked at it with Brother Lewis yesterday. Matthew chapter 19, the occasion Jesus just taught on the subject of marriage and divorce, and the result of his teaching was pretty difficult to accept. You can't just put away your spouse for any reason. He talks about fornication as the acceptable reason. And as a result, the disciples, either sarcastically or in amazement, decide, well, it must be better to not get married at all. Matthew 19, verse 10. His disciples say to him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. Probably meaning, if you're just going to fuss and fight and be stuck with each other, why get married at all? Verse 11, Jesus, He said unto them, Not all men can receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs which have had made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." The word Jesus uses here, eunuch, does not have to mean what you think it means. The word eunuch generally applies to a castrated man, but it can mean something much broader than that. It can be used to describe anyone who is either incapable or unwilling to procreate and have children. You see that's Jesus's intention in this passage, because after he uses that word, I think Jesus knows what he's doing. After he uses that word, he says, I want to explain to you different ways that word can apply. He says there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb. There were some who were born physically unable. He says there are some which were made eunuchs of men. That is, there are some who have been forcefully rendered unable. And then he says there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. That is, there are some who willingly abstain from marriage and sex for the purpose of glorifying God. Now, why does Jesus make those distinctions? Because the disciples just sort of flippantly said, it's better that a man doesn't even marry. And Jesus stops and says, whoa, be careful about thoughtlessly tossing around ideas like that. Don't try to apply that standard universally to all people. Not all men can receive that same. There are only a few to whom it is given. So Jesus says, yes, there is actually truth in that claim that it would be good for men not to marry. But that truth is not for everyone. Paul says it's good if you've got the gift of singleness. But if you don't have that gift, then it's not good. It isn't good for everybody. It's not something that should be forced. Forced celibacy can result in some of the most horrific displays of sexual depravity. The history of the Roman Catholic priesthood is a testament to the dangers of forced celibacy. It's not Paul's intention to force singleness upon anyone who's not gifted with singleness. Look again at our text in 1 Corinthians 7, down at verse 35. He says, "...and this I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you." That word snare there is the word for a slipknot. It could as easily be translated as a leash. It's not Paul's intention to put a leash on unmarried Christians, holding them back from the good state of marriage. Singleness is not for everybody, but it is for some. Some have that gift. Paul himself lived a powerful Christian life as an unmarried man. The one thing you can say about Paul is he was not afraid to live out what he commanded others. He didn't tell others to do something he was unwilling to do himself. Traveled at least 10,000 miles on his missionary journeys, went over mountains, through dangerous gang territories, went by boat, was shipwrecked, was beaten, was stoned, was left for dead. Do you think that it's possible, or at least likely, that Paul would have accomplished all that with a wife and family? Or did Paul live out his own words to the Corinthians in verse 32? I would have you without carefulness. That is, I want you. The reason why I would have some people be single to serve the Lord is because it leaves them without carefulness, without anxiety, without those extra concerns. He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But he that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. Should we go through the entirety of single saints in the Scriptures? widows like Naomi and Anna, or prophets like Jeremiah and Daniel, faithful servants like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, John the Baptist, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the sibling friends of Jesus, Lydia, the businesswoman. How many examples do we need to see that singleness can be a gift from God? Perhaps the example of Jesus himself should be enough. Are you willing to look at Jesus' life as incomplete or unfulfilled? We're drowning in this culture that tells us that unless you're married, or at the very least, unless you're sexually active, that you're incomplete as a human being. But the life of Jesus proves to us that can't be. He lived a fulfilled, unmarried life. He enjoyed very healthy relationships with others. Maintained a sense of purpose. It wasn't a life of restlessness. He embraced that he was the son of God and a child of the Father. He was loved by the Father. Singles today can follow in the footsteps of Jesus. living a fulfilled, purposeful life, embracing that they are also a child of God their Father. We said that marriage helps us conform to the submission of Christ and the love of Christ. Well, what about embracing singleness to conform to the life of Jesus that was focused on and fully dedicated to doing God's will in all areas of life? And again, not everyone has this calling. But it's clear from Scripture there are some who do have this calling. And they should embrace it for the glory of God. Secondly, I want you to see single Christians are complete in Christ. One of the great temptations single people can experience is to be tempted to believe that somehow they're incomplete or unfulfilled or that they're missing something. Several years back, there was a saying from a movie that got popular for couples to say to each other, you complete me. It's a romantic notion, but it's one that misses the mark spiritually. Being single is not a state of incompleteness. Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10, it tells us that Jesus, in Jesus, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then it goes on in the next verse to say, you are complete in Christ. If you're a believer, then you're complete in Christ. You don't have to have a relationship with a spouse to be made whole. You need a relationship with Jesus In fact, that's true for married or unmarried people. God deals with us as individuals before dealing with us as couples. I mean, can a husband have saving faith for his wife? Can a wife have saving faith for her husband? As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts, when the Apostle Paul originally comes to this city of Corinth, God tells him to remain there for some time. And he doesn't say, because I have a lot of couples in that city. He says, I have much people in that city. And it's clear that some of those people were already married people that God was going to save individually. Because part of the issue in chapter 7 here is, what do you do? When the gospel comes to Corinth and a husband is saved and the wife is still lost, what do you do when the wife is saved and the husband is still an idol worshiper? God deals with individuals first. And those individuals who were already married at Corinth were incomplete being married because they weren't yet complete in Christ. So a widow or a widower or a single Christian who has never married, They are all complete in Christ. They are not second-class citizens of heaven, and they should not be considered second-class citizens of our churches. It's very easy to look down on singleness and make the implication either by words or by comments or by making some flippant joke. that a single person is lacking because they're not married. Folks, do not fall into that lie. Otherwise, your Savior was incomplete, too. Every individual will be judged individually. If you're married and you have 17 children and 280 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, you're still going to stand before God by yourself. You will stand before God with Jesus by your side as your advocate, and you won't be wishing for him to be replaced with your spouse. Singles are not just presently complete in Christ. They are eternally complete in Christ, in exactly the same way that saved married couples are. Listen to me here. The married Christian has no eternal advantage over the unmarried Christian. The distinction of marriage, as much as we love it clearly and as much as we embrace the glorious truths of it, is going to fall away one day, leaving each of us to answer to God as individuals. In Matthew 22, the Sadducees come to Jesus with a question that they think is unanswerable. They say, well, there was a woman who had a husband, and her husband died, and she remarried, and that husband died, and she remarried, and that husband died, and she remarried, and seven times over she had seven husbands. So now when she dies and goes to heaven, whose wife is she going to be? First reaction to that would be, say, at what point do men stop marrying that woman? But they think they've trapped Jesus. They said she's had seven husbands. Who gets her in heaven? Matthew 22, verse 28, therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, You do error, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven." In the resurrection. So when this blip of human history passes away and gets engulfed by eternity, they are not married or given in marriage. Listen, my single friends. You are not going to spend eternity mournfully watching your married friends holding hands and cooing sweet nothings in each other's ears and wishing that you had something like that. Marriage is temporary. We can easily elevate marriage to a status it doesn't deserve. Now, we've talked about the beauty and the importance of marriage in this conference, and I think it should be clear that it's glorious and it's God-honoring, but I also tend to think at times we idolize marriage. When we exalt the earthly gift of marriage above the spiritual gift of singleness, we're putting it somewhere it doesn't belong. And you might think, well, yeah, sure. They won't be married or given in marriage, but they're still going to be there together. The believing husband will be joined by the believing wife. The believing wife will have her believing husband. Their believing children will be there for all eternity. It sure seems like the blessings of eternity are extra special to someone who's married, to which I can only answer, it seems that way now to our mortal lives. But if you trust God, you must trust His word and His promises. Remember, Jesus used that word eunuch. And it seems like such an awkward word, given what it usually means, and even has to go about explaining exactly what it means. Look, there's a reason that Jesus did that. He didn't have to use that word. But by using it, the Savior is tapping into some Old Testament promises and taking them and handing them to New Testament singles and saying, you might have never thought about it this way, but take this, it's for you. Listen to Isaiah 56. Verses 3-5, neither let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree, or look, I've got no fruits. I'm never going to have any fruits. Thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbath, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant even unto them, will I give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." Can you embrace the promise of having an eternal home and an everlasting name that's better than sons and daughters? an everlasting name. Look, I have daughters. My brother, my father's only son, also has no boys. There is going to be a day that our side of the name Schultz is going to disappear from the earth, and the world's probably going to be a better place for it. But the truth of God's family is infinitely greater than our family. We should stop acting as if the family of God will only grow if we keep having good Christian marriages and big Christian families. Those things are good, but the family of God is expanded and grown by spiritual regeneration, not by physical propagation. The family of God is not built upon those who are born, it's built upon those who are born again. And a single Christian has, they are as powerful to influence the world with the gospel as a married Christian. Perhaps even more powerful. And it's not an unfulfilled life. You know the Apostle Paul was fulfilled by expanding the family of God when he had no earthly family of his own. He writes to Timothy tenderly, and he calls him, my son. He tells the church at Corinth, you don't have many fathers, for I've begotten you in the gospel through Jesus Christ. He writes to the Thessalonians, and he says, I was with you, as gentle as a mother nursing her children. Paul had no children, but Paul has a massive family. It's the family of God that's the primary concern of a Christian, married or single. If you are single in Jesus Christ, you are complete in Christ. You are lacking nothing. That's why, thirdly, single Christians are to be embraced by all. This blessing of singleness, it does not exist in a vacuum. It's not something that happens like, you know, over there in the corner with a couple of people and the rest of the church can't be bothered by it. Single Christians need to be embraced by their brothers and sisters in Christ. Look, and this can be a problem both ways. It is very easy. I mean, it's very easy to fall into this trap of selfishness where single Christians can look on married Christians and look down at them and say, well, you know what? There's something wrong with them that they're all focused on each other so much and not on the Lord. And there are married couples who can look down on singles and think, well, they're incomplete. And just what potential they could have if we would only find them a spouse. For us to do that ignores the gifts which God has given each of us. Within the church, it's doing exactly what God's Word says that we're not to do when we look at each other and say, we don't really need you. The New Testament's clear that God puts people in the church as necessary parts of the body of the church for it to function in its completeness, in its wholeness. Look, there's no member of the church body that's like an appendix that you can remove and be okay without. And that means If you're single, every married couple is there in the church because the church, including you, needs them to be there. And if you're married, every single who is in the church is there because the church and you need them to be there. Stop trying to do away with their singleness. Married and unmarried Christians need to be part of one another's lives. This gift of singleness is precious. It's to be embraced by all the members of the church. Not to say that all the members of the church have that gift, but we're all to embrace those who do have that gift. We don't glance around the assembly. identifying one another in groups and cliques and saying, oh, there's the rich, and there's the poor, and there's the young, and there's old, there's the black, there's the white, there's the single, there's the married. We look upon the assembly as our brothers and sisters in Christ, a distinction which is far greater than any other distinction you'll find. We all too often look at our own family as the pinnacle of our concern, but the Word of God exalts God's family over our own family. Look, it's a blessing to have a family through marriage or through childbirth and through adoption, but single Christians have an easier time embracing a truth that is crucial for a God-centered life. they can embrace and they can fully live out the truth that God's Word exalts Christ's family above the natural family. There was a time very early in Jesus' ministry when His mother and His siblings came looking for Him. They were like, something's wrong. Jesus is surrounded by all these people. He's exhausting Himself. We're going to go. We're going to get Him. We're going to take Him back home to Nazareth. We're going to get Him into His right mind. Matthew 12 records it in verse 47, it says, Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brother stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto them that told him, Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? and he stretched forth his hand towards the disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brothers, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. There will come a day when earthly relationships like brother and sister and husband and wife will be done away with. And as noble as an institution as marriage is, it is but for a moment. It is a mere speck on the eternal timeline of God. The relationship you have with your brothers and sisters in Christ is eternal. It's lasting. Jesus says in Mark chapter 10, there's no man that has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake in the Gospels. But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life." Jesus is not saying there you have to abandon your earthly responsibilities. But He is demanding that you prioritize your Savior and the Gospel over all the earthly concerns that you have. You leave your brother for the Gospel's sake, you get better brothers. You leave your sister for the Gospel's sake, you get better sisters. You leave your parents and they're replaced by a heavenly Father. You leave your home, you get an eternal home in glory, you let go of marriage, you get unity with Jesus. He does not pretend that's easy. He even includes in there, it comes with persecutions, but it's rewarded nonetheless. How does this affect you if you're married? Understand, do not act as if the singles in your church are social outcasts or spiritual lepers. They are not the great unwashed masses. There is nothing wrong with them. But if you aren't embracing them as family, there's something wrong with you. Do the singles in your church, do they feel like they're family, or do they feel like they have to just group together and make themselves a family? Is your loyalty expressed to the family of God or to your natural family? Singleness for the Lord's sake is going to be most successful when the Lord's people, both single and married, embrace that as a means to glorify God. The Lord's house is full of singles and married people. Your house ought to be consistently full of singles and married people. In conclusion, obviously, I'm a married guy preaching about singleness. So that comes with some questions like, can you even know what you're talking about? Well, yeah. I was almost 30 before I got married. I can honestly say it was apparently not enough time for me to embrace any kind of gift of singleness and live faithfully as a single because I was lousy at it. But it was enough time for me to understand the challenges of being single. I know what it is to come home from work to an empty house. I know what it is to spend lonely nights that seem to last all day. experienced the out-of-place awkwardness of being out with married couples. I didn't enjoy that revolving wheel of relationships of people who come into and out of your life. I remember attending weddings and being in weddings. And I'm like, I'm never going to have a wedding. I remember the kind of longing that I had for marriage. And I can't tell you that I approached it right. You can have a God-given longing for marriage without it turning into the whining and pining that I was doing. But if you're single, understand, marriage and singleness each come with their own trials, their own difficulties, and their own blessings. You don't need to have any expectation that when you stand before the great judge of the universe, it's there that you're going to be told which one was better. You're not. The married Christian is going to be judged on their faithfulness to Christ in marriage, and the single Christian is going to be judged on their faithfulness to Christ in their singleness. If God has gifted you with singleness, remain single and do not succumb to the pressure of those around you. Prayerfully seek God's face about your singleness and how to serve Him through it. And if you still desire to be married after that, understand you have to do it for the gospel's sake. You are bought with a price. You are not your own. You do all things for the glory of Him who's bought you. Any potential marriage has to be filtered through the call of God and through the gospel. Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 7, down in verse 39, he's talking about a widow and says, she's free to remarry. In other words, she can go out and find herself a husband and get married to him, but there is a restriction only in the Lord. You have to marry in God's will. You have to marry a believer. You have to marry the person that God has brought into your life, who you can marry for his glory. And if you don't have that person, then maybe you need to embrace that, for now at least, it's God's will for you to be single to his glory. And so I'd encourage you to ask yourself a few questions. How can I be single for the glory of God? Should I spend my time searching for a good spouse or preparing to be one? Do I really believe right now that Jesus is enough and that I am complete in Christ? If you're married, Be sure that you're embracing the single Christians in your church as your full and complete brothers and sisters in Christ. They are a part of a family that is greater than your spouse and greater than your children. And they face difficulties that you have never known or have long since forgotten. Singleness is a gift. It's not just a gift that was given to people in your church. It was a gift given to your church to embrace those people who have that gift. And finally, to my unsaved friends, whatever your marital status, whether you're married, whether you're single, if you are not saved, Understand, the greatest relationship which the human soul should long for is not union with a spouse, but union with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You may be tempted to think that marriage will fix your empty life and calm your lonely mind or ease your troubled heart, but Jesus is the only one who can make you complete. If you were granted All of your fondest hopes and dearest desires, the happiness that you would gain, would ultimately prove temporary and unfulfilling. Without Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are incomplete. You need to look to Him and invest yourself fully into a relationship with the only one of whom death will not