The Gentle Savior

This week I’m giving a shout out to our minister Steve Malone at Maple Grove Christian Church, who challenged us on Sunday to rethink singleness – as good – not only perfectly fine with God but even spiritually advantageous for those accept and embrace it. The church needs to consider more of this message in a culture where 50% of adults are single.

Here are a couple of interesting observations I have found recently about single women in first-century Christianity:

 “The women surrounding [Jesus] and, indeed, the men as well, are predominantly celibate. It’s difficult to name a married couple, with the exception of Mary and Joseph, who are together when Jesus talks to them.” (New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine in a Christianity Today interview, April 2012)

“Should they be widowed, Christian women also enjoyed very substantial advantages. Pagan widows face great social pressures to remarry…. Of course, when a pagan widow did remarry, she lost all of her inheritance—it became the property of her new husband. In contrast, among Christians, widowhood was highly respected and remarriage was, if anything, mildly discouraged. Thus not only were well-to-do Christian widows enabled to keep their husband’s estate, the church stood ready to sustain poor widows, allowing them a choice as to whether or not to remarry.” (Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity)

Listen to “Singleness … and Searching” by Steve Malone