The gift of singleness

In 1 Cor 7 Paul uses the language of "calling". His idea of calling is both of the call of the gospel and the call of a particular situation in life. For example verse 20 says " Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him." Here we see the call of the gospel, but in verse 17 the situation in life is the calling, "Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him" (7:17).

Even though the situation one finds themselves in is assigned by the Lord and his calling on them, some people are free to change their situation. Slaves are able to gain their freedom (7:21) and the unmarried are allowed to marry (7:9,28). Paul's point is to not let your situation in life trouble you, that it does not matter and not to put vast amounts of energy into changing your situation. In light of the coming kingdom of God it just does not matter much (7:29-31). What matters is following the commands of God (19).

The idea of God's calling is primarily of the call of the gospel and then the Lord's assignment of people to their situation in life, particularly their marital situation. Whether you want to be or not God has called you to a particular pattern of life and in the grand scheme of things it just does not matter which one that is. It also does not matter if you change if you are free to do so.

The other piece of language Paul uses is that of giftedness. In verse 7 he says. "I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.". Is this gift singleness itself or being content in being single without the desire to marry? On Sunday I suggested it was the latter, that is the gift is the gift of being single and not desiring to marry (for any reason).

I take it that when Paul describes himself he is not thinking that he is like those in 9 who are single and burn with passion, but is 'happily' single. "8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."

What it means is that there are people who have been called by God to the single life but are not gifted with the gift of singleness. Paul's instruction would be: get married as soon as you can, don't worry about it too much and use your current state of singleness for undivided devotion to the Lord.




Can you be married and not have the gift of marriage?

We have a problem using the language of gifts. Every good thing from God can be described as a gift (James 1:17). Marriage itself can be called a gift, your spouse is a gift, the power to live the married life in love and forgiveness is a gift. However, in this passage the state of marriage nor the ability to live in a marriage relationship are described as gifts. There is no mention of a supernatural empowering that enables some married people to remain married while others don't have this ability. I take it that all married people have been given the resources in the gospel to lead a married life. Passages like Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3 are directed to all married Christian people irrespective of how long they have been Christians or their own personal psychology etc. Whereas the desire to marry for a single person is something to be honoured and recognised and has a valid expression of changing your situation in life, the desire of a married person to divorce is an indication that the couple need significant help.

What if you don't want to marry but aren't happy being single?

I might have expressed this poorly last night but Paul is really dealing with those who are content in being single and those who are single and would like to marry. There could be a another group who don't want to marry but who aren't happy in being single. My first thing to ask is, "what is it about being single that is causing you to be unhappy." I suppose there could be a million reasons that don't produce the desire for marriage: cheaper accommodation per person in hotels, easily sharing a car, having someone handy who can change the light-globes, someone who can share the driving etc, etc. I think life is just full of things that are hard and for which there is no straight forward solution. Paul was content in his singleness in as much as he had no strong desire to marry. I suppose that did not make him like everything about his life (2 Cor 12:7).

Any more thoughts or questions?

Blokes doing pretty things

Over the last few weeks I have seen blokes doing some really pretty things. The deal with blokes doing pretty things is that there has to be at least twice as much danger as there is prettiness so the pretty element is hidden (but I saw it!).

The first was about 30 blokes riding massive waves off the point at South Avoca. The danger was extreme with the powerful waves breaking across the rocks and the blokes surfing incredibly close to them. Once surfing the blokes are just doing pretty things.

The second was a group of guys twirling flaming sticks at Terrigal. It was dangerous but pretty. If you had put ribbons in their hands they could have been at the Summer Games.

The third was after the Top Gear live show with a bloke doing tricks on a motor bike. I shot some video of him which is below. it was pretty. He named some of the moves, they included one called the flamingo and another the can-can.

What other pretty things do blokes do? Is church dangerous? Is church pretty?

Blog is back

After being sick for three months last year and trying to keep on top of life since then I feel that I have made a come-back with this first blog post!

Sport Report

I was wondering how we ever got into the situation of publicly funding elite sport. Is it just that everyone else is doing it so we need to do it to? The Crawford report has just ruffled some Olympic feathers.

I love sport but surely there is enough corporate sponsorship, TV deals etc that it can pay for itself. It would mean our taxes could pay for things that really benefit our community instead of having a few Olympic heros to make us feel good. Maybe we need to get it all in perspective, "For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8

Scholarships for training women in Christian ministry

I got an email from Tara Thornley at Moore College about some scholarships. Check out the information here.

Jesus All About Life

Davo rang me tonight to say that the Jesus All About Life billboards are up and was wondering if we are getting one. The answer is YES!. We are just waiting for it to be delivered. Once it is up I'll let you all know.

Do children need parents?

I thought it was interesting that much of our decision making about the work/family balance has to do with larger economic factors that seem outside our control. I don't know all issues about kids at daycare but I know that God gave dads and mums the primary responsibility to educate and raise their children, not the state. One woman is trying to do something about those larger economic issues. Check out what she is doing here.