So over at at Soma we are in the middle of a sermon series titled “Relationship Status: Its Complicated.” As the title implies its a series on relationships. I’m up this week, after Brandon did a great job talking about Christ centered friendships its my turn to bring the word on singleness. There is an interesting story about how this message came about… I’ll spare you the details but God has put this message on my heart in a very heavy way. The topic of singleness s a topic I don’t want to tackle, mainly because its so cheesy. The church is constantly talking about “the gift of singleness.” I really wonder if that is biblical at all. 1 Corinthians doesn’t seem to say so to me, but maybe I’m just reading it wrong. Anyway I think I found the interpretive key to the topics addressed in 1 Corinthians 7. The key is Paul’s discussion of circumcision. Circumcision and Singleness…that would be a great sermon title haha. In 1 Corinthians 7:19 Paul says:
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing….
Why talk about circumcision in the middle of a diatribe about marriage? That is a great question.
When I read this verse I remembered that Paul had said this same phrase somewhere else…Galatians 6:15:
For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything.
The context of this Galatians verse is Paul’s final admonition to the Galatians. He says he doesn’t boast in anything….ANYTHING except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why circumcision or uncircumcision doesn’t matter. Neither justify us. Neither give us identity. They can’t! So they don’t matter. They are nothing! What matters is what Jesus did and where we are in him. Outside of that there is complete freedom. And that freedom is to be used to expand his kingdom. To be on mission. To be the light that God has called us to be. The same holds true for relationships. Single or married… it doesn’t matter. Neither justify you. Neither make you a better Christian. Neither give you your identity. So there is freedom. Be single, be in a relationship, But use that freedom to what God has called you to, namely to expand his kingdom and to be living in light of the eschatalogical reality of new creation.
Those are just some of my thoughts for this weekend.
CWoznicki Think Out Loud 