(upbeat music) - In the last podcast, we talked about Adam's singleness and why it was not good. And of course, this raises the question of whether singleness itself is intrinsically bad. What would you say to singles, especially to those who may be called to a life of singleness, Pastor John?

- No, I wrote two chapters on singleness in my book on marriage. And the reason I did it is because I knew that if you're gonna celebrate marriage, you're gonna have single people reading it and saying, oh, so that's the great life, and I get the other life. And my point there was, no, there are glories that can be shown in marriage that can't be shown in singleness, given.

There are glories that can't be shown in marriage, but only in singleness, given. If God has called you to a life of singleness, there are ways in and by that singleness to display the glory of God, which married people can't. It does involve other people. So my point stays the same.

God created the other. And I said other partly because I knew that it's not just wife, it's not just husband, it is other human. And single people are called into a life of receive one another as Christ received you so that with one voice you may glorify him. That is talking about the true eternal family.

And one of the things I stressed in those chapters was, marriage is temporary, the church is eternal. So the relationships we form in the church with brothers and sisters who may be single last forever. The relationship between a man and a woman in marriage doesn't, Jesus went out of his way to say, in the resurrection there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, which is why my dad will not be a bigamist in heaven, even though he had successive wives.

36 years with my mom, 25 years with my stepmom. He answered that question by saying, there won't be any marriage or giving in marriage. So thank you Tony for the clarifying question. Yes, singleness doesn't mean one has embraced a lesser life because there are ways to display the corporate glory and the glory of dependence on God in unique ways in singleness that can't be done by husband and wife.

- Thank you Pastor John. And those books in particular are titled, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, see the foreword, which is titled, For Single Men and Women. And also see the book, This Momentary Marriage, A Parable of Permanence, which was written by Pastor John and his wife Noel. See especially chapters nine, which is titled, Single in Christ, A Name Better Than Sons and Daughters.

And also see chapter 10, which is titled, Singleness, Marriage, and the Christian Virtue of Hospitality. All three of these chapters and both of these books, Recovering Biblical Manhood and This Momentary Marriage are both available in their entirety for free, completely for free, for download, no strings attached at desiringgod.org.

I'm your host Tony Reinke, thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)