At first glance, Scripture can appear to speak with two voices on the question of singleness. In Genesis 2, before sin enters the world, God declares, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen. 2:18). Yet in 1 Corinthians 7, the apostle Paul can write, without apology, “I wish that all were as I myself am”, referring to his singleness (1 Cor. 7:7), and later insist that the unmarried person is able to be “anxious about the things of the Lord” in a way that the married person is not (1 Cor. 7:32–35).
Is this a contradiction? Has the Bible changed its mind? Or are we failing to read either text carefully enough?
The answer, I would suggest, is that Genesis and Paul are not in tension at all. Rather, they are addressing different questions, in different redemptive contexts, while sharing a deeper agreement about what it means to be human before God.
What Genesis Is, and Is Not, Saying
When God declares that it is “not good” for the man to be alone, we should pause and recognise how striking this is. Up to this point in the creation account, everything God has made is declared “good.” This is the first “not good” in the Bible — and it occurs in a sinless world.
Yet we must also be precise – the problem in Genesis 2 is not simply that Adam is unmarried. The issue is that Adam is alone in a deeper sense: he has no corresponding partner, no fellow image-bearer with whom he can share the task of ruling and filling the earth (Gen. 1:26–28). None of the animals can fulfil this role. Adam needs “a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:18).
Marriage, therefore, is presented not merely as a remedy for loneliness, but as the creational context in which humanity’s original mandate is to be fulfilled. This is why Genesis 2 is foundational for a biblical theology of marriage, and why Jesus himself appeals to it: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matt. 19:5).
But notice what Genesis does not say. It does not say that every human being at all times must be married in order to live a faithful or fulfilled life. It does not say that singleness is sinful, deficient, or contrary to God’s purposes in every circumstance. Genesis describes the norm of creation, not the sum total of God’s redemptive intentions for all ages.
Paul and the Pressure of the Present Age
When we turn to 1 Corinthians 7, we are in a very different setting. Paul is not writing about the structure of creation, but about life in what he calls “the present distress” (1 Cor. 7:26). The resurrection of Christ has brought about the last days. This world is “passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). In that context, the church must think carefully about how best to serve the Lord with undivided devotion.
Paul’s affirmation of singleness is therefore not a denial of Genesis, but an application of eschatology. Because Christ has come, because the kingdom of God has broken into history, there are now callings and forms of life that would have been unintelligible in Eden. Jesus himself taught this when he spoke of those who have “made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12). Paul stands firmly in that trajectory.
Crucially, Paul does not command singleness. He is explicit that both marriage and singleness are gifts: “Each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (1 Cor. 7:7). One is not spiritually superior to the other. What matters is faithfulness within one’s calling.
The Deeper Harmony: Human Beings Need Community, Not Just Marriage
Here is where Genesis and Paul meet. Genesis teaches that it is not good for human beings to be alone. Paul does not dispute that. What he challenges, and what the modern church often assumes, is that marriage is the only or primary answer to that problem.
In the New Testament, the deepest solution to human ‘aloneness’ is not marriage but incorporation into Christ and his body. The church is the family of God. In Christ, we receive “brothers and sisters and mothers” (Mark 10:29–30). This does not replace marriage, but it relativises it.
This is why Paul can both affirm singleness and assume rich relational life for single believers. His vision of singleness is not isolated individualism, but deeply embedded community. A church that praises singleness in theory but leaves single people functionally alone has misunderstood Paul just as badly as it has misunderstood Genesis.
Pastoral Implications for the Church Today
For a conservative evangelical church, particularly in the UK, where cultural pressures around marriage and sexuality are intense — this has important implications.
First, we must resist sentimentalising Genesis 2. Marriage is good, but it is not ultimate. It is temporary, pointing beyond itself to the greater reality of Christ and the church: “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:32).
Second, we must resist marginalising singleness. Paul’s teaching means that singleness is not a holding pattern, a problem to be solved, or a lesser calling. For some, it will be a lifelong vocation through which God’s kingdom purposes are powerfully advanced.
Third, we must recover a more robust doctrine of the church. If the only place people experience deep belonging is in the nuclear family, then we have already conceded too much to modern individualism. The local church should be a place where singleness is not merely tolerated, but honoured and supported.
One Story, Two Moments
Genesis and Paul are not pulling us in opposite directions. Genesis tells us that human beings are made for relationship. Paul tells us that, in Christ, those relationships are reconfigured around the kingdom of God.
Marriage remains a profound and precious gift. Singleness, in this age, can be a strategic and joyful calling. Both are ways of bearing witness to the gospel, and both find their meaning not in themselves, but in the God who gives them.
In the end, the Bible does not teach that it is good to be alone. It teaches that it is good to belong — to Christ, and to his people — whether married or single, until the day when all God’s people are finally gathered together, and no one is alone any more.
Chalmers' Blog 