Singleness and the Image of God

In my last post I discussed how marriage bears the image of God in a particular way that neither male nor female alone can do. This begs the question of how are we to think about singleness then?


I think that the matter of sin and the Fall are crucial to this topic. When we look at Genesis 1-2 and the design for the male/female union to bear God's image we immediately realize that this is implemented in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. Genesis 5 and Genesis 9 both reiterate that mankind still bears God's image after the Fall, and that marriage as a bearer of His image and His blessing on marriage also remain after the Fall. Yet it is clear that the image of God in man has been marred by sin. When we look at all of this it seems clear that marriage and the male/female union are designed before the Fall and that in the Garden of Eden there is no design for singleness. It can be assumed that children would have been single for some amount of time even in Eden, but the design is for marriage. It seems that long term singleness is one outcome of the Fall. This will be a 'hard saying' for some folks but that seems to me a clear implication of Genesis 1-3.


This by no means equates singleness to sin; it simply means that the design for men and women has been marred by sin and there are a great many consequences of that. It also does not mean that singles as people are somehow less in God's image as individuals. The fact that marriage bears God's image in a way individuals cannot is a matter of the vocation or calling of marriage, not of the individuals involved.


Widowhood results from the death of a spouse, and death is a result of the Fall. This type of singleness is clearly connected to the Fall. For young adults, the world system is fallen and very often impacts marriage. In China now, as a result of the Communist one-child policy, there is a shortfall of at least 20 million women compared to the male population below 30. Many of these men will be single as a result of the sin of the Chinese leaders who forced so many abortions and the sin of parents in selectively aborting baby girls. Abortion of baby girls has been practiced in India as well, where there will be a similar impact on singleness. In the U.S. how have the 50 million abortions since Roe v. Wade impacted the marriage opportunities for some young adults? Many young adults will be single as a result of the world system through no fault of their own, and  that includes the U.S. as well as the examples in Asia.  They still bear the image of God as individuals. Genesis 9 in the passage that institutes capital punishment makes it clear that individuals also bear God's image, though it in no way cancels the fact that the male/female union bears that image in a way that individuals cannot.


Some believers will remain single for lack of a suitable believer to marry. In this fallen world there are consistently more women than men in church, consistently more women than men who self-identify as believers. This means some will have difficulty finding a suitable marriage partner. The Bible is clear that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, so it is a Biblical and responsible choice to remain single in this circumstance. This too is a result of the Fall.


There will be some who remain single as a result of chosen sin as well: sins of homosexuality, sins of placing career above all else, sins of promiscuity that end up destroying the chance for marriage all come to mind.  Both the world system and chosen sin have an impact on singleness. They also impact marriages, and destroy many marriages.


This can be compared with disease, which is also an outcome of the Fall. Some disease seems to be a result of our choices (lifelong smoking that leads to cancer comes to mind) while others are simply part of the way things are in this fallen world (infants with cancer come to mind). Some will remain single due to their choices, others due to things beyond their control.


Some are also called to singleness for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Jesus in Matthew 19 speaks of those who are 'eunuchs for the kingdom'; Paul speaks of those who remain single for the work of the gospel in his letters to the church at Corinth. Genesis says that in this world the male/female union in marriage carries God's image in a special way, but Jesus points out that in the resurrection 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage' (Matt. 22:30). The image of communion in a love relationship is carried by Christ and the church in the resurrection. Christ himself was single. Believers may be called to be the picture of what is to come by their singleness in devotion to the kingdom of God.


It is sometimes useful to consider pushing ideas to their extreme limit. What if everyone were single? Would that bear God's image on this earth in a full manner? Would the image of God on earth be diminished by the lack of male/female unity, children, and families? I think this would clearly diminish the fullness of God's image on earth.  What if everyone were married? Would that diminish the fullness of God's image on earth? I think not. There would still be singles before they marry and  there would still be widows. I think this reinforces the notion of marriage as the basic design.


Yet the Fall has resulted in singleness as a reality, and those singles are no less in God's image. Their station in life is different from those who are married, however, and so in Christ they are called to bear God's image in a different way, a way that looks forward to the resurrection.

The Image of God in Marriage

What does it mean to be made in God's image, as Genesis 1 and 2 maintain, and how do we live out that image on this earth? There have been many attempts to try to locate God's image in some single attribute like rationality or language or decision making. The Bible never tries to do that sort of thing and I think it is a mistake to attempt it. However, I do think we can identify some of the elements of being in His image directly from the Bible.


Genesis 1:26-28 is a key text on this topic, saying " Let Us make man in our image, according to Our likeness....And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And He blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and multiply...'


In our culture much of the emphasis in teaching about marriage has been about companionship, but this is talking about much more than companionship. It is talking about the male/female union in marriage as an important part of bearing God's image on earth.


In his book The Mission of God (chapter 13, p. 427), Christopher J. H. Wright makes these observations about this passage: "Genesis 1 sets human male/female complementarity closely alongside the image of God.

• So God created man in His own image
• In the image of God he created him
• Male and female he created them

The implication from the tight parallelism seems clearly to be that there is something about the wholeness of human gender complementarity and the mutual relationship it enables that reflects something true about the very nature of God."  Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body indicates that the love relationship of the Trinity is pictured in marriage and in the bodily union of male/female; he goes on to say, 'the definitive creation of man consists in the creation of the unity of 2 beings'. He goes on to talk about the meaning of the body itself, what he calls 'the spousal meaning of the body' as an important component of this complementarity. This is to say that the very maleness and femaleness of the body has meaning, and is part of what it means to bear God's image on earth. The body itself enables us to bear God's image in the union of male and female in unity.



In talking about this in chapter 2 of  his book Genesis in Space and Time, Francis Schaeffer points out, "male and female constitute one whole,  become one flesh. Man, with a capital M, equals male and female..." This is to say that to fully bear God's image requires both male and female in union.


All of these agree that marriage bears God's image in a special way. This image requires complementarity and fruitfulness, as shown in the verses immediately following where the man and woman are blessed and the blessing specifically involves fruitfulness to multiply. This is clearly about much more than companionship; it is about being God's image on this earth, living out His image here and now. The fundamental purpose of marriage is to bear God's image on this earth in a way that male or female alone cannot do.


Same-sex marriage cannot do this. It cannot because it denies the basic meaning of the body by joining 2 bodies not designed to be joined; it cannot because of its inherent sterility rather than an inherent design to be fruitful; it cannot because it lacks the differences between male and female natures that must join to more completely bear God's image.


Most evangelical churches totally fail to teach the importance of marriage in bearing God's image on earth. That is a huge failure. Is it any wonder that there are so many divorces in the church now, since we don't seem to know the fundamental purpose of marriage?