One By One: A 7-Day Devotional By Gina DalfonzoSample

First Things First

The modern evangelical church has made marriage and family into a “first thing.” They are good things, of course, but they are not the first thing for which the church was created.

But we have lost sight of this. We thought we could improve on our witness by concentrating on happy family life, getting everyone married off before they had a chance to engage in sexual sin, holding up model marriages and children for the world to admire and emulate. Instead, as a slew of statistics and articles shows us, not to mention our own personal experiences, we have increasing divorce rates, children who grow up and walk away from the faith, and single Christians who often feel alone and isolated in the middle of a church crowd. We sacrificed our smaller good by exalting it too highly, and in the process we lost our focus on Christ—who taught us to concentrate first and foremost not on filling the church with model families but on seeking out the lost and lonely, sharing His love with them, and loving them and each other as He does. 

I hope these short devotionals inspire you not just to see the single in your pew in a new light but to act accordingly. The single person who sits next to you on Sundays, or sits under your teaching from the pulpit or in the Sunday school classroom, is not someone else’s problem. 

We talk very lightly about our Christian “brothers and sisters,” but how many of us truly serve each other like that, even when there are significant differences in status and position? How many of us look past those differences and value each other that highly? How many of us love each other with a love that lasts beyond death, a love that pursues and will not give up? 

This love that reflects the love of God is our “first thing,” the thing that distinguishes us, the thing that we have to offer the world. Love that knows no barriers and no boundaries. Love that reaches out even to the singles in your church. 

What blind spots did you discover in yourself about your view of singles in your church as you read these devotionals? What will you do differently this week at church as a result?