Barry Danylak published Redeeming Singleness in 2010. As I was reading his extensive survey of Scripture
and theology, something came to my attention although he did not exactly
address it in this way.
The Old Testament opens with the command to “be fruitful and
multiply” (Gen. 1:28) followed by “Therefore a man shall leave his father and
mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24
ESV). That is soon followed by various genealogical listings. In contrast, the
New Testament opens with a genealogy pointing to the One born of a virgin, and
He never married or had biological children. The new command Jesus gave was “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt. 28:18). Those facts alone
illustrate the nature of the new covenant initiated by Jesus Christ. It is no
longer about bearing biological children to fill the earth and carry on the
family name. Instead it is about becoming spiritual children of the One True
God and teaching others to do the same. This can be illustrated by the chiastic
structure:
- Creation
- Command- “Be fruitful and multiply”
- Marriage with children
- Heritage
- Children without marriage
- Command- “Go and make disciples”
- New Creation
I’m sure much more could be said on that, but I’m not
prepared to write my own book. On a related note, Danylak wrote:
“There is sometimes a tendency,
especially among the idealistic young who presume to have most of their years
yet before them, that singleness is a temporary period of one’s life until one
finds an eternal soul mate in marriage. This passage [Luke 20:34-36] is a
reminder that in the scope of eternity the opposite is actually the case;
marriage is for a season and time, until, as the traditional marriage vow
reads, ‘death do us part.’ It is as single and free individuals that we will
stand before his throne and live for all eternity” (165).
Danylak spends most of his final chapter focusing on Paul’s
words in 1 Corinthians 7. I appreciated his comments on the gift of singleness,
in particular because I’ve heard others argue an opposite position (and I may
have agreed with them at times). He wrote:
“A spiritual gift is not a talent
or bestowment for one’s personal benefit but a divine enablement given for the
mutual benefit of strengthening the substance and mission of the church… In
view of both Paul’s and Jesus’ statements, we can define the charisma of singleness this way: The charisma of singleness is a
Spirit-enabled freedom to serve the King and the kingdom wholeheartedly,
without undue distraction for the longings of sexual intimacy, marriage, and
family…
“[The] gift of singleness is not
simply the situation or status of being unmarried. Unless one marries the day
after puberty, one will inevitably live part of his or her life as a single
person. There are some who may have to live their entire lives as single
people, without the gift of singleness—not ever finding a suitable mate. As we
noted earlier, Jesus recognized that some are eunuchs not because they chose to
be but because of factors outside their control. However, those who have the
gift of singleness can remain single by choice.
“Paul is not suggesting that both
singleness and marriage are spiritual gifts… [Marriage] does not entail special
manifestation of the Spirit for edifying God’s people and serving the kingdom
of God… Moreover, suggesting that marriage is a gift complementary to
singleness leaves those who are single involuntarily in an ambiguous state.
They do not have the ‘gift’ of marriage, but neither do they have the ‘gift’ of
singleness, as their desire is to be married” (199-201).
Or as Sam Allberry put it, “What if someone is married but
decides they don’t have the ‘gift’ of marriage?” Even if others disagree, it is
worth thinking about whether our beliefs about marriage and singleness are
based on scriptural principles or not.
“…The unmarried or
betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body
and spirit…” (1 Corinthians 7:34b).
© 2018 Dawn
Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from
pixabay.com.
