Failing to Make the Most of the Season...

This week, we are looking at the issue of singleness. And in a section of a letter that Paul wrote to a church we see four ways that Christians can act unchristian by disrespecting singleness. Yesterday, we saw that we disrespect singleness when we fail to focus on the right attachments.

Today, we look at a second way that Christians act unchristian by disrespecting singleness in that we can disrespect singleness when we fail to make the most of the season. We see this way revealed for us in 1 Corinthians 7:32-35:

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

In these verses Paul explains that the man who is single can be singularly focused on using the time, the talents and the treasure that they have been given by God in a way that pleases God. The man who is married, however, has his attention divided or separated. On the one hand, he is to bend his attention toward loving the Lord with his total being, while at the same time, bending his attention to love His wife selfishly and sacrificially as Christ loved the church.

In a similar way, Paul states that the woman who is single can be singularly focused on using the time, the talents and the treasure that they have been given by God in a way that pleases God as someone who is holy, or set apart both in body and spirit to serving the Lord. The woman who is married, however, has her attention divided or separated. On the one hand, she is to bend his attention toward loving the Lord with his total being, while at the same time, bending her attention to loving her husband and living in relationship with Him.

Paul then reveals for us the timeless truth that the season of singleness, however long that season lasts, can be a time of incredible blessing and impact. So often we, especially in church world, look at singles as second class citizens. The reality, however, is that singleness is an unique time in our lives where we can experience and be used by God in incredibly powerful ways that do not happen once we are married. Paul here is promoting the reality that singles have the opportunity to leverage their time, talents, and treasure, into God’s kingdom mission and into times of intimacy with God that those who are married often cannot experience.

In our culture, we have bought into the lie that we have to spend time as singles focused on finding the right person. The Bible teaches that as followers of Jesus, we are to spend our time as singles becoming the right person. And the amazing thing is that as we become the right person in our season of singleness, we become more and more attractive to the right person as we become more and more like Christ.

As Paul reveals to the church at Corinth, it is not a sin to be married, and it is not a sin to be single. It is a sin when we fail to live our lives faithfully as followers of Jesus in the season of life that we are currently in.

So how are you living in the season that you are in? Are you making the most of that season, whether it is singleness, marriage, widowed, or divorced? What needs to change in your heart or in your attitude so that you made the most of the season of singleness?