Glorify God With Your Singleness -- By: Denny R. Burk

Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 05:1 (Fall 2015)
Article: Glorify God With Your Singleness
Author: Denny R. Burk


Glorify God With Your Singleness1

Denny Burk

Denny Burk (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) joined the faculty of Boyce College and Southern Seminary in 2008. He writes frequently on biblical and theological topics and has a special interest in biblical sexual ethics. He is the author of What Is the Meaning of Sex (Crossway, 2013). He has also authored “Gender Confusion and a Gospel-Shaped CounterCulture” in Don’t Call It a Comeback, ed. Kevin DeYoung (Crossway, 2010). Burk has articles that have appeared in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Tyndale Bulletin, Bulletin for Biblical Research, and The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is the author of a book on Greek grammar entitled Articular Infinitives in the Greek of the New Testament. He is also a contributor to Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Burk comments daily on theology, politics, and culture at www.DennyBurk.com.

Singleness In The Teaching Of Jesus

Only in Matthew’s gospel do we find Jesus’ clearest and most extensive comments on singleness. It comes at the tail end of Jesus’ teaching about divorce, in which the Lord offers a fairly restrictive view on divorce and remarriage.2 Jesus’ remarks provoke a stunned response from His disciples, who say: “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry” (Matt. 19:10). In the minds of the disciples, if one must commit to the trials of marriage with such finality and permanence, then it would be easier simply to remain unmarried. The disciples probably did not mean to suggest that lifelong singleness was a serious option. In Jesus’ day, it was unheard of that a man would choose to remain unmarried his entire life. A good Israelite saw it as his duty to have a family and children — to be fruitful and multiply.3 Thus, the disciples’ proposal was likely offered more as an instinctive response than as an actual possibility.4

It must have been stunning, therefore, when Jesus greeted their remark with affirmation rather than dismissal: “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given” (Matt. 19:11). There are some who think that the phrase “this statement” refers back to Jesus’ prior teaching on divorce (vv.

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