I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
Paul is writing to a church in Corinth, a cosmopolitan ancient city, addressing people who are either unmarried or have been widowed. He is not saying marriage is bad — he celebrates it elsewhere — but he is making an honest case that singleness has real, distinct value. The phrase "as I am" tells us Paul himself was unmarried, which was culturally unusual for a Jewish man of his standing in the ancient world, where a man's social status was often tied to family and household. Paul wore his singleness not as a burden but as a freedom — one that allowed him to travel relentlessly, endure imprisonment, and pour himself into the early church without divided loyalties.
Lord, forgive me for the ways I have treated my current life as a placeholder. Whether I am single, married, widowed, or somewhere between — teach me to see the life I have right now as the real one. Help me live it fully, for you. Amen.
There is a particular kind of loneliness that comes with being unmarried in a world organized around couples — church potlucks, Valentine's Day sermons, the perpetual "so, are you seeing anyone?" The message is subtle but relentless: you are in a waiting room, and your real life starts when someone finally shows up. Paul would push back on that. Hard. He calls singleness *good* — not a consolation prize, not a holding pattern, but a legitimate, whole way of living in the world. Whatever your relationship status, this verse is really asking something harder: are you actually living the life in front of you, or holding it in reserve for some imagined future? Paul's freedom was not just about being unmarried — it was about being fully *present*, invested in what God had given him right now. You do not have to be single to ask yourself honestly: what have I turned into a waiting room that God might be calling home?
What does Paul mean when he calls singleness 'good' — and what does that specific word carry that 'acceptable' or 'fine for now' would not?
How do you honestly feel about your current relationship status, and what does that reaction reveal about what you believe God values?
Church culture often treats singleness as a problem to be solved rather than a calling to be honored. Where do you think that assumption comes from, and is it rooted in Scripture?
How does your community — church, family, close friends — treat single or widowed people? Is there anything you could do differently to honor singleness as a valid way of life?
Is there an area of your life you are treating as a waiting room, deferring your full engagement until circumstances change? What would it look like to be fully present where you are right now?
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 5:14
Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1 Corinthians 7:1
But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
1 Corinthians 7:32
His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
Matthew 19:10
But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, [that as a practical matter] it is good if they remain [single and entirely devoted to the Lord] as I am.
AMP
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
ESV
But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.
NASB
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am.
NIV
But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am;
NKJV
So I say to those who aren’t married and to widows — it’s better to stay unmarried, just as I am.
NLT
I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me.
MSG