Playing a winning game
With God's help we can beat Satan at his own game. We can turn it all to our advantage. How? If we want to build physical muscle we need some resistance — for example, a heavy weight to lift against. Then when it hurts, muscle is built. The same is true spiritually. Suffering is the origin of growth. Fighting against the pulls of the world will help us build character. And it is character, not our physical comfort, with which God is most concerned.
A single person who can control his sex drive is a person who can control every major area of his life. Singledom is a chance to develop character. Hot fires can burn and consume or give energy for growth. The same furnace can make or break you. Which will it be?
Obedience to God is largely a matter of habit. If one leads a full, giving and sharing life there is not much time for idle daydreams that can lead to disaster. But to bring every thought into captivity (II Cor. 10:5) is not easy. It requires persistence and courage. We may have a hard time of it now (Acts 14:22), but when we look back from the perspective of being in God's Kingdom then it will all be worth it (Rom. 8:18).
Some successful singles
We single folk in the Church have something that singles in the world do not have. We have the hope of God's Kingdom. Once a person has this, his perspective changes. It becomes his goal (Matt. 6:33). Everything else is a backdrop to that calling. One should not be preoccupied with one's state in life, but preoccupied in helping to do the Work. Backing up Christ's apostle should be the primary thing.
The champion of singles is Jesus Christ. True, He was married in one sense to Israel. But He has not married in the usual sense of the word. He has not lived in wedlock with a woman. As a human He had to fly solo. Our Messiah learned what being single was about.
Christ experienced everything a single person experiences. So we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with our infirmities; He was in all points tempted as we are (Heb. 4:15). He understands our situation and has compassion on us. That's why He's our Champion.
His cousin John the Baptist was also single. Was John a failure in life? Was he in some way a lesser human being because he never married? Of him Christ said, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:11). John was a successful single.
In New Testament times who was the apostle who labored more fervently than any of the others? It was Paul (I Cor. 15:10). Paul may have been married at one time, because there are indications that before conversion he was a member of the Sanhedrin, and you had to be married to be a part of that group. But he was not married during his time as an apostle (I Cor. 7:7-8). Did his wife die? Did she leave him?
Anyway, Paul was another successful single.
Thus three of the top men in the New Testament were single. This is not to imply that marriage isn't good.
Of course it is. Marriage to the right person at the right time is a wonderful gift from God.
But being single is also a gift from God (I Cor. 7:7). Singledom may be a gift you don't want, but God's gifts are good gifts (Matt. 7:11). We should relax and let God give His gifts as He sees fit. He knows us well enough to be able to determine what is best for us.
Christ led a life free from sin. He was our perfect example. He did not marry in the normal sense of the word. Obviously then, it is not wrong not to marry. I realize that there are reasons why Christ did not marry, but maybe there are reasons why you also might not choose to marry just yet.
Take a look at Luke 2 in terms of people who choose to be single. God does give us a choice in life. Notice the lifestyle that the person in Luke 2:36-37 chose. "One Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity." Read the account carefully. She was a widow for about 84 years. That's apparently what she chose. I imagine she may have had ample opportunities for remarriage, but she chose to remain single. It was not a sin. And she was not a failure. But since it is not good for a man or woman to be alone, she undoubtedly built strong friendships with other converted people.
Some of the most serving women I know are single. They are beautiful on the inside and the outside. God appreciates them. They are not failures or in any way lesser human beings. They've either been widowed or haven't met someone who is right for them. And they have the strength to remain single until they do.
They aren't going to be pressurized into marriage. They realize that marriage is too wonderful and important to be foisted on them by the pressure of friends and relatives. It must come from the inside — from the head and heart as it is guided by God's Spirit and sound counsel. After all, God's will is that we first be godly people aiming for His Kingdom (Matt 6:33), not first be married. Priorities have to be kept straight.
There are no second-class citizens in God's Church. We are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26). God would not have called us if we didn't have an important part to play in finishing the Work. There is no room for division. Whatever state we are in, our main preoccupation is to put our shoulder to the wheel and push as hard as we can to help Herbert W. Armstrong finish the job of warning this world. That is our calling, and there isn't much time left now.
Righteousness the goal
Eternity is one long stretch of time. And it will be occupied by spirit beings. Spirit beings, like the angels, do not marry (Mark 12:25). For the future eons we will be single. I mean unmarried in the human, physical sense of the word. We will, of course, be married to Jesus Christ. But we will not be married in the usual sense of the word. In that sense, marriage is only for this time.
The top two members of the Godhead never married in the physical sense of the word. So don't ever think that you can't qualify for a top position because you are unmarried. We don't have to be married to be balanced human beings in this life and spirit beings in the next.
Obviously marriage is a wonderful institution and highly desirable. It pictures beautifully the God-plane relationships we will have in the next life. Nothing I am saying is meant to detract from the beauty of a marriage lived in accordance to God's laws. A good marriage is perhaps the nearest thing to complete happiness that a person can find in this world. To be married to the right person at the right time with a right attitude is a tremendous blessing. It is the ideal.
But wedlock is not necessary for salvation. Marriage is not a qualification for God's Kingdom. Righteousness is. That's the point I am making. It doesn't matter what condition we are in, as long as we fully serve God in a righteous state. Whether married or single, we should glorify God in our lives.
After Solomon tried everything (including 700 wives and 300 concubines), he summed it all up in Ecclesiastes 12:13, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."