When Paul said “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.” (1 Corinthians 7 v 8), he held up singleness up as something

to aspire to and marriage as something to embrace if you cannot walk the higher way. Of course it’s not that easy. Throughout history, around the world, society has

emphasised the relationship, esteemed marriage and family above singleness, not least because the desire to connect is a real element of human nature and there is that

thought from Genesis that it is “not good for man to be alone.” But increasingly, even though attitude to marriage has changed for many, we live in a world where single

people are made to feel strange, guilty or failures because they are not in a relationship and perhaps that’s even more the case within the church community. So what

message does the bible bring to this, how should we, if we are single, view ourselves and how should we, if we are in a relationship, esteem our single brothers and

sisters?

Paul asked Jennie Pollock, Speaker, Editor, Blogger and Author of a new book “If Only”.