When the French philosopher Rene Descartes famously declared “I think therefore I am” he was (among other things) establishing a trend that has reached full fruition in our own day: starting the answer to life’s biggest questions with “I.” We find ourselves now living in the “Age of Self.”[1] If the basic unit of life is “me,” then the fundamental goal of life is my own sense of fulfilment, not least sexually.
Such a context makes the Christian life of singleness all the more challenging, and the healthy pastoring of single people all the more urgent. Every generation has faced the pressure to regard the Christian sexual ethic as unnecessarily restrictive. But today we face the formidable cultural pressure to see that ethic as dangerous to our psychological health and an existential threat to societal good. Without careful shepherding, many of our singles will get caught in the riptides of these social currents and carried far away from Christ.
So how can we pastor singles in such a time? There are three truths in which we especially need to immerse the church, and especially our singles.
1. Marital status is not the primary determiner of fulfilment and happiness.
It is
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