The Christian and singleness

Generally, marriage is a legally or formally recognized union of two, man and woman, as partners in a personal relationship usually with the primary purpose of starting a family. Marriage though its processes differ from place to place has always been seen as one whose source is from God Himself.

In Genesis 2 verse 18 to 24, the bible clearly stated that, God realized that it was not good for man to stay alone, hence He had to create for him a helper. In respond to the kind forethought of God, Man responded by saying; this is a bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Mind you this was the very first man to live on earth. In the later verses of the same chapter, God actually called them husband and wife. The very first time in the history of mankind, hence the genesis of marriage.

A single person is one who is not part of a pair or group. Per the purpose of
this article, singleness is a state where one is not married or having any form of romantic relationship with any other person. This period comes in everyone’s life. That is to say, everyone had once been single. Every married man or woman was once single and might become single again. Taking divorce out, death of a spouse might cause one to become single. Usually, many people seem to see singleness as a curse or oppressions, but this cannot be seen to be true, even though there are rare cases which can be attributed to the evil ones.

Just to mention few, Jesus Christ lived a single life, Paul, Ruth, John the Baptist and many others were single as well, but they manifested Christ throughout their lives. However, Paul in 1 Corinth 7:6-7 said this as an admonishment to the church in Corinth that he wished all of them could be single as him, but each one of them has his or her special gift totally unique to his. To some, marriage, to others, the ability to stay single. In as much as singleness is a gift from God, it must be seen as a precious thing and handled with care and all seriousness.

This is because, the bile is clear on this that; we shall be accountable to anything that is given to us on this earth. To be able to live faithfully in this state as a youth, we must therefore not neglect the manual of life, the bible, inside this manual is the journey plan of life. The word of God and prayer cannot be taken for granted so far as singleness is concern.

Singleness however is a waiting state in the lives of Christians. The bible makes us understand that anyone who waits in the presence of God receives a new strength. The keyword here is receive. Another time when the Apostles in Acts 2 waited on the Lord, they received the Holy Spirit.

This settles the argument that, during our single states which doubles as a waiting state, we are expected to receive something from the Lord through the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Note also that the gifts of the Holy Spirits must bear fruits, and the fruits of the Holy Spirits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control Gal 5:22-23. During our youthful ages, one major thing that we need to be able to sail through the stage of singleness and an extension to marriage is self-control is.

The bible specifically brought it to the last among the fruits of the Holy Spirit because when one receives the Holy Spirit and the spirit germinates in his or her fertile body, He must bear fruit and this fruit fore mentioned all comes together to make it evident that the person is totally a complete being. In as much as people think until one is married, he or she can’t experience love, joy, peace, patience amongst others, it is rather the opposite. The Holy Spirit actually makes these things available for us during our waiting state to make us feel belonging and have fellowship with the Holy Spirit as if we are married to Christ. Hence not only married couples enjoy love, Peace, Kindness and gentleness, a single person also does.

There is however no excuse for a single Christian youth to fail since he is expected to have, patience and self-control in him with the Holy Spirit as a source. We therefore must be able to wait faithfully and be able to control ourselves until the right time.

To the youth, singleness should not be seen as just a normal stage in life. It is a God gift period that comes along with its special blessings. If there is anything you are waiting to do for God when married, do it now even as you are single. Just as Joseph understood the various traits of temptations and decided to be faithful to God and himself, and Jesus Christ focused entirely on God whilst single, you can also gear your energy and focus towards actively worshiping God even as you are single.

The bible made us understand what we stand to gain when we seek first the kingdom of God; all other things will be added unto us. Added in Greek means magnetize, this means that when we focus on the things of God, every other thing, including marriage will be attracted onto us like a magnet attracting pins. Adam was busily working for God whilst God was also thinking about him. In fact, that was when God realized that he actually needed a helper. When we focus on God, he also focusses on us. We must all have a second thought about singleness as youths, let us make a better use of this stage of our lives for God until we are married.