The pericope of Matthew 19 situates Jesus within a public controversy over marriage and divorce. Pharisees test Him with competing schools of interpretation derived from Deuteronomy 24, seeking to trap Him in debates over the permissibility of divorce and the grounds for dissolving a marriage. Jesus refuses to argue within narrow legal frames and instead reorients His hearers to the Creator’s design from the beginning as narrated in Genesis. He thereby places marriage within a Biblical and creational teleology of covenantal union. In response to this rigorous standard, the disciples utter a striking conclusion about the practical difficulty of such fidelity: “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Matthew 19:10, ESV). Jesus replies with a teaching that affirms both the dignity of marriage and the dignity of celibacy for those to whom it is given. The climactic assertion arrives in Matthew 19:11–12:
“But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it’” (Matthew 19:11–12, ESV).
These verses function as a profound affirmation of a vocation that mirrors the life of the coming age. Jesus is not denigrating marriage. Rather, He is disclosing that a grace-enabled form of celibate life is a sign of the Kingdom’s inbreaking. This life anticipates the eschatological condition wherein “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30, ESV). The language of “receiving” this word as a gift reframes celibacy, not as an imposed burden or a universal law, but as a particular grace for a particular calling that serves the Gospel.
This essay will exegete Matthew 19:11–12, situate its original-language keywords within the semantic range of the terms used, and draw out theological and pastoral implications. It will also acknowledge that some in the early Church understood Jesus’s words with rigorous literalism, while recognizing that the literary and rhetorical context of Matthew presents Jesus’s saying as a deliberate hyperbole of consecration akin to other hyperbolic injunctions, such as “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” (Matthew 5:29, ESV). The goal is to hear Jesus on His own terms, within Matthew’s portrait of the Kingdom, and to articulate a constructive evangelical account of celibacy “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”
Receiving a Given Word
Jesus begins with an interpretive key: “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given” (Matthew 19:11, ESV). Two terms deserve attention. The verb “receive” translates the Greek χωρεῖν (chōrein), here in the infinitive construction with the object “this word” or “this saying” (τὸν λόγον τοῦτον, ton logon touton). The basic sense of χωρέω is to make room, to have space for, hence metaphorically to accept, to tolerate, or to receive. The perfect passive “it is given” corresponds to δέδοται (dedotai), from δίδωμι, and indicates a divine passive. The capacity to “make space” in one’s life for this hard saying is not a self-generated achievement but a gift from God.
The clause “only those to whom it is given” parallels Jesus’s other statements in Matthew about revelation and vocation as divine gifts. “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 13:11, ESV). The Kingdom is received by grace. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul employs a related logic of giftedness: “But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (1 Corinthians 7:7, ESV). Paul’s term is χάρισμα (charisma). Jesus’ δέδοται is not identical in vocabulary to Paul’s terminology, yet the theological grammar is analogous. Celibacy is not the superior state universally commanded. It is a charism given by God to some for the sake of undivided devotion. Marriage is also a divine calling. The Kingdom distributes different gifts for the edification of the Church.
“Eunuchs” Categories and Semantics
Verse 12 names three kinds of “eunuchs,” using the Greek εὐνοῦχος (eunouchos). The term can refer to a castrated male in ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman contexts, often associated with royal courts and harems, or, more generally, to a court official who may or may not have been physically castrated. The Septuagint uses related vocabulary to translate Hebrew terms such as סָרִיס (saris), which can mean both “eunuch” and “court official.” For example, Potiphar is called a saris in Genesis 39:1, although the narrative context makes it unlikely that he was physically castrated, given his status as a married man. In Esther, eunuchs tend to the queen and the harem, demonstrating the term's more literal, institutional sense (see, for instance, Esther 4:4).
Jesus lists three groups:
“Eunuchs who have been so from birth” (οἵτινες ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ἐγεννήθησαν οὕτως). This encompasses those who, from their mother’s womb, lack reproductive capacity or sexual function. The phrase ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός (ek koilias mētros) is an idiom for a congenital condition.
“Eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men” (οἵτινες εὐνουχίσθησαν ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων). The aorist passive εὐνουχίσθησαν (eunouchisthēsan) marks an action done to them, often in contexts of royal service, slavery, or conquest. Such practices were tragically common in the ancient world.
“Eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (οἵτινες εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν). The middle voice with the reflexive pronoun ἑαυτούς (heautous) admits two possible senses. One is literal self-castration. Another is metaphorical, indicating a chosen life of sexual renunciation for service in the Kingdom. In light of Jesus’s broader use of hyperbolic self-denial to provoke radical obedience, and in light of the Church’s canonical rejection of self-mutilation as a condition for ministry, the metaphorical reading coheres with Matthew’s literary and theological context. As with the hyperbole of tearing out one’s eye or cutting off one’s hand to avoid sin (Matthew 5:29–30; 18:8–9, ESV), the drastic imagery aims to magnify the decisive seriousness of discipleship without prescribing bodily mutilation.
The concluding imperative, “Let the one who is able to receive this receive it” (ὁ δυνάμενος χωρεῖν χωρείτω, ho dynamenos chōrein chōreitō), bookends the teaching with the verb χωρεῖν. Reception is possible only for those whom God enables through grace, and it is free. Jesus invites; He does not coerce.
Marriage, Discipleship, and Eschatological Signs
Matthew 19:11–12 is not an isolated aphorism but part of a narrative movement. Jesus’s maximalist reaffirmation of marital indissolubility is grounded in creation: “from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8, ESV). He rescues women from the abuses of easy divorce and places marriage within a covenantal fidelity that images God’s steadfast love. The disciples’ response reveals the existential weight of that teaching. Jesus’s reply does not say that marriage is inferior. He says, in effect, that if you are thinking only in terms of your own convenience, then you have not yet understood that both marriage and celibacy are vocations that require grace.
The immediate narrative moves from this teaching to the welcoming of little children (19:13–15), the encounter with the rich young ruler who cannot part with his possessions (19:16–22), and the climactic discourse on riches and reward (19:23–30). Within this narrative arc, Jesus names three states of life that challenge worldly valuations: the childlike dependence that receives the Kingdom, the renunciation of wealth to follow Jesus, and the celibate dedication to the Kingdom. All three are signs of the inbreaking reign of God. All three invert common expectations about status, power, and fulfillment. In Matthew’s Gospel, such signs are not merely private disciplines, but public witness to a new social reality created by the Gospel.
Original Language Key Terms and Theological Weight
εὐνοῦχος (eunouchos): In its literal sense, a castrated male; in administrative contexts, a court official. In Matthew 19:12, Jesus’s tripartite list includes both literal conditions and a chosen pattern of life. The semantic elasticity of the term in Scripture counsels careful attention to context. When Jesus speaks of those who “made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom,” He uses strong imagery to name voluntary sexual renunciation as a Kingdom vocation.
χωρέω (chōreō, “to receive, to make room for”): The idiom “to receive this saying” frames the teaching as a word that requires space within the heart and life. It suggests that celibacy as a vocation cannot be squeezed into a life already filled with competing allegiances. Only hearts that make room by grace can live it joyfully.
δέδοται (dedotai, “it has been given”): The perfect passive underscores that the capacity to accept celibacy is a divine gift. It resonates with Matthew’s theme that the Father graciously grants knowledge of the Kingdom and participation in the Kingdom.
διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν (dia tēn basileian tōn ouranōn, “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven”): This prepositional phrase gives the entire saying its theological teleology. Celibacy is not for the sake of personal achievement or spiritual elitism. It is ordered to the Kingdom’s mission.
οὐ πᾶντες (ou pantes, “not everyone”) and ὁ δυνάμενος (ho dynamenos, “the one who is able”): Together they guard against the universalization of this calling and invite those specifically graced to embrace it fully.
Deliberate Hyperbole and the Ethic of the Kingdom
Matthew’s Gospel employs hyperbole to awaken the moral imagination. The command to tear out an eye or cut off a hand if it causes sin (Matthew 5:29–30; 18:8–9, ESV) is best understood not as a literal instruction, but as a way to insist that sin must be opposed decisively. Similarly, Jesus’s characterization of voluntary eunuchs is a hyperbolic naming of a real and holy way of life. Some early Christians appear to have taken the phrase literally. Yet the canonical shape of Christian teaching, including pastoral norms governing the body, prayer, and ministry, reflects the understanding that literal self-castration contradicts the goodness of the body and misunderstands the figurative force of the saying. The hyperbole does not negate the reality of the vocation. Instead, it intensifies its urgency and purity. The point is not mutilation. The point is consecration.
The Three Categories and Contemporary Understanding
“Eunuchs who have been so from birth”
Jesus honors those whose congenital condition entails reproductive incapacity by naming them within the breadth of divine providence. In the ancient world, such persons were often stigmatized or excluded from religious privilege. Deuteronomy 23:1 legislates a boundary: “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord” (ESV). Isaiah 56 announces a prophetic reversal that anticipates the Gospel’s inclusion: “Let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters’” (Isaiah 56:3–5, ESV). Jesus’s mention of those “from birth” participates in this trajectory of redemption. The Gospel recognizes the dignity of every person and promises an inheritance in God’s house. The narrative of Acts 8, in which Philip bears witness to Jesus to an Ethiopian eunuch who is then baptized, offers the firstfruits of this promise: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” and “he baptized him” (Acts 8:35, 38, ESV). Persons who have been “born so” are not outside the covenant family. In Christ, they receive a name and an everlasting inheritance.
“Eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men”
This category acknowledges a history of violence, domination, and exploitation. Castration was often imposed on enslaved or conquered men to secure the interests of kings and empires, especially in the administration of royal households and harems. Jesus’s naming of this reality neither condones the practice nor heaps shame upon victims. Instead, He recognizes their existence within God’s providence and includes them within the scope of Kingdom blessing. Isaiah’s promise of a “name better than sons and daughters” directly addresses those who, through human cruelty, endured loss of fertility and social standing. The Gospel restores dignity where the world has inflicted degradation. In Christ, bodily loss and social marginalization do not exclude one from full membership in the Church or from the call to holiness. The categories of Matthew 19:12 thus refuse to reduce persons to their sexual function. The Kingdom creates a new household where worth is not measured by procreative capacity.
“Eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven”
Here, Jesus designates a voluntary path. The phrase is vivid and jolting. It is a metaphor for consecrated celibacy, a free and grace-enabled renunciation of marriage and sexual relations for the sake of undivided service to the Gospel. Paul confirms the spiritual logic in 1 Corinthians 7, not as a universal rule but as a vocational counsel: “To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am” and “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided” (1 Corinthians 7:8, 32–34, ESV). Paul also grounds this counsel in a theology of gift: “each has his own gift from God” (1 Corinthians 7:7, ESV). Jesus’s phrase “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” frames the vocation as mission oriented. It is for prayer, service, and availability to the needs of the Church. It is not an escape from responsibility. It is a different form of responsibility, oriented toward Kingdom witness.
Living the Future Now
Jesus’s teaching is not a critique of creation. It is an eschatological sign. To remain unmarried “for the sake of the kingdom” is to live now by the pattern of the coming age. The resurrection life is a life in which familial bonds are reconfigured by union with Christ and participation in the household of God. Jesus Himself testifies, “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30, ESV). The celibate life is a sacramental sign of this future. It is a proleptic embodiment of the Kingdom’s permanence, where devotion to God is undivided and where the family of God constitutes one’s primary kinship. The Church needs such signs. They remind all disciples that even within marriage, ultimate allegiance belongs to Christ, and that every human household serves a higher household, the Church of the living God.
A Note on Misreadings: Eunuchs and Sexual Orientation
Some contemporary interpretations have suggested that Jesus’s phrase “eunuchs who have been so from birth” includes a reference to sexual orientation, particularly to those who experience enduring same-sex attraction. It is important to be careful with terminology and Biblical semantics. Scripture does not use the term “eunuch” to denote sexual orientation. In the canonical contexts, eunuchs are defined by reproductive incapacity or by their social function as court officials. The lexical fields in which Scripture speaks about same-sex sexual behavior, for example, in Romans 1:26-27 or 1 Corinthians 6:9, do not overlap terminologically with eunouchos. The words translated in 1 Corinthians 6:9 as “men who practice homosexuality” in the ESV reflect difficult Greek terms, including ἀρσενοκοῖται (arsenokoitai) and μαλακοί (malakoi). Whatever one’s account of these terms, Scripture does not equate them with eunuchs. Therefore, it is exegetically prudent to resist conflating categories that Scripture does not conflate.
This distinction does not call for contempt toward any person. The Gospel summons every disciple, whatever his or her pattern of desire, into chastity according to one’s state of life. Those called to marriage are called to faithfulness within that covenant. Those called to singleness are called to chastity and, in some cases, to a vowed celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. Jesus’s words dignify those who live chastely without marriage, not as second-class Christians, but as signs of the future and servants of the present mission of the Church.
Isaianic Hope and Lucan Fulfillment
Isaiah 56 is crucial for understanding Matthew 19:12. The prophet promises to eunuchs who hold fast to God’s covenant that they will receive “a monument and a name better than sons and daughters” and “an everlasting name that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:5, ESV). In other words, God will give them an inheritance not dependent on biological progeny. Matthew’s Gospel emphasizes that the Kingdom establishes a lineage rooted in obedience to God and faith in Jesus, rather than in fleshly descent alone. Acts 8 narrates the moment when this promise becomes a sacramental reality. The Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Kandake, hears the Gospel, believes, and is baptized. He joins the Church not by becoming fertile but by receiving Christ. He receives a name in the Church that cannot be cut off. This is the Gospel’s logic of inclusion. It honors the body’s goodness and the order of creation, yet it refuses to measure human dignity by reproductive power or marital status. The Church is a family constituted by the Word and the Spirit.
The Disciples’ Concern and Jesus’s Calibration
The disciples complain, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Matthew 19:10, ESV). Jesus’s answer both affirms and corrects. He affirms that there are indeed persons who will not marry and will live fruitfully in the Kingdom. He corrects the spirit of avoidance. The reason not to marry is not fear of covenantal responsibility. The reason is a divine call to undivided service. That is why Jesus frames the vocation with δέδοται, “it has been given.” The master theme is not burden but gift. Pastors and teachers should speak of celibacy accordingly. It is not a last resort for those who failed to marry. It is a beautiful calling for those to whom it is given.
Paul’s Counsel
Paul’s counsel in 1 Corinthians 7 often serves as a practical commentary on Matthew 19:11-12. Paul refuses to impose celibacy as a universal rule. Instead, he recognizes a spiritual calculus that weighs opportunities for undivided attention to the Lord’s work. “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord. . . . But the married man is anxious about worldly things” (1 Corinthians 7:32-33, ESV). His point is not that marriage is worldly in the pejorative sense, but that it properly entails concern for a spouse and, by extension, for children. In some seasons and for some persons, God grants a charisma to live without these obligations in order to serve in other intensive forms of ministry and prayer. Paul’s entire argument is governed by the good of the Church and the freedom to serve where one is called. “Each has his own gift from God” (1 Corinthians 7:7, ESV).
Pastoral Theology of Celibacy for the Kingdom
A robust evangelical theology of celibacy will affirm at least seven principles drawn from Matthew 19:11-12 and its canonical links.
Celibacy is a grace, not a law. Jesus situates it within the divine passive “it has been given.” The Church should encourage discernment, not compulsion. Discernment includes testing motives, assessing gifts, and seeking wise counsel.
Celibacy is for the mission. The phrase “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” defines the end. Celibacy should never be a rejection of creation’s goodness or an evasion of responsibility. It is rather a redirection of one’s energies toward the prayers, ministries, and sacrifices demanded by Gospel witness.
Celibacy honors the body rather than despising it. Hyperbolic language about “making oneself a eunuch” must be interpreted in light of the goodness of the body and the constructive discipline of chastity. The point is not mutilation but dedication. The celibate Christian offers his or her body as a living sacrifice to God’s service.
Celibacy is ecclesial, not solitary. Those who live this vocation do so within the Church’s household. They need community, mutual accountability, sacramental grace, and spiritual friendship. The Church, for its part, must esteem and support celibate members with honor equal to that given to married couples.
Celibacy is eschatological. It points to the resurrection life. By embodying a life without marriage now, the celibate offers a visible testimony that our ultimate hope is not in the goods of marriage and family, good as they are, but in union with Christ.
Celibacy is not required to be free from lust. Jesus’s teaching uses hyperbole to insist on decisive opposition to sin. Celibacy requires chastity, just as marriage requires chastity. The call to a celibate state must be joined to concrete disciplines of prayer, work, and service that train desire in love.
Celibacy dignifies those who cannot marry. Jesus’s mention of those “from birth” and those “made eunuchs by men” defends the dignity of those who, by circumstance, are not in a position to marry and procreate. Their lives in Christ are fully meaningful and fruitful in the Church.
Common Objections and Misunderstandings
Some object that Jesus’s words reflect a negative view of sexuality. The opposite is the case. Jesus affirms the creator’s purpose for marriage precisely by rejecting trivial divorce. He also affirms that sexual renunciation can be holy when undertaken for the Kingdom. Both marriage and celibacy find their dignity in serving God’s purposes. The Church should avoid a false hierarchy that exalts one person over another. Instead, the Church should cultivate a complementary ecology of vocations for the upbuilding of the body.
Others fear that speaking of celibacy implies a rejection of human desire. The Gospel calls for the transformation and ordering of desire toward God. Within marriage, this ordering occurs through covenantal fidelity and shared life. Within celibacy, this ordering occurs through chaste self-gift to God and neighbor. In both cases, grace heals and elevates desire rather than annihilating it.
A third misunderstanding is to assume that celibacy is either an elite spiritual performance or a private lifestyle choice. Jesus refuses both reductions. It is not performance because it is a gift. It is not private because it is for the Kingdom’s mission. The Church must therefore treat celibacy as an ecclesial vocation with public significance, worthy of formal support, formation, and recognition.
Spiritual Practices that Sustain the Vocation
Celibacy for the Kingdom flourishes within a Rule of Life that stabilizes the body and soul in grace. Several practices are beneficial.
Daily prayer with Scripture. The celibate disciple should be anchored in the Psalms and the Gospels. Praying Matthew 19 alongside Isaiah 56 can renew hope in God’s promised name and inheritance.
Regular participation in Word and Sacrament. Grace is received, not manufactured. The Table of the Lord sustains the celibate with the presence of Christ and knits the celibate into the body of the Church.
Spiritual friendship and accountable community. The discipline of chastity matures within friendships ordered to God. Celibacy is not isolation. It is a relational gift that creates new forms of family within the Church.
Vocation-specific service. The celibate life creates availability. This availability should be directed to concrete works of mercy, teaching, intercession, evangelization, or administration according to one’s gifts.
Ascetical disciplines. Fasting, simplicity of life, and custody of the senses build the virtue of temperance. Such disciplines are not ends in themselves, but means of freedom for love.
Pastoral oversight. The Church should provide mentors and pastors trained to accompany celibate Christians, just as it provides marriage preparation and pastoral care for couples.
The Witness of Celibacy to a Culture of Self-Creation
In late modern contexts, identity is often framed as self-creation and desire as self-definition. Jesus’s word invites a countercultural form of freedom: a life received as a gift and given back in service. The celibate vocation witnesses that the self is not constituted by sexual activity or marital status, but by union with Christ and service in the Gospel. This witness is not accusatory toward married life. It is a reminder that both married and unmarried Christians belong first to the Kingdom. The celibate Christian can therefore serve as a prophetic sign that human flourishing is found in communion with God and neighbor more than in personal fulfillment according to any singular script.
Marriage, Celibacy, and Mutual Illumination
Matthew 19 holds marriage and celibacy in mutually illuminating tension. The same Gospel that blesses childlike dependence, counsels renunciation of possessions for the poor, and promises a hundredfold reward to those who leave houses or lands for Jesus’s sake, also blesses the goodness of children and the stewardship of wealth in generosity. Vocation relativizes earthly goods by placing them within the Kingdom’s purposes. Married Christians can learn from celibate brothers and sisters that the family is not ultimate and that hospitality must extend beyond the household to the Church and the stranger. Celibate Christians can learn from married brothers and sisters that love is embodied, patient, daily, and often hidden. The Church needs both vocations to display the fullness of Christ’s life.
The Force and Aim of Jesus’s Saying
The force of Jesus’s saying lies in its combination of realism and hope. Jesus names the hard realities of human life. Some are born with conditions that affect marriage and procreation. Some suffer injustices that reshape their bodies and futures. Some are called to a radical renunciation of marriage for the sake of the Kingdom. To each condition, Jesus speaks grace. Those who cannot marry are not without a name, a future, or a place. Those who suffer bodily loss are not disqualified from holiness. Those who receive celibacy as a gift are not less human, but are instruments of the Kingdom’s freedom and love. The aim is the Kingdom. The structure of the sentence is teleological: “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” The imperative that closes the teaching, “Let the one who is able to receive this receive it,” guards liberty and grants urgency.
Conclusions and Pastoral Applications
Discernment for individuals. If a Christian senses a desire to remain unmarried for the sake of prayer and mission, he or she should undertake a period of discernment with reliable pastoral guidance. Discernment should test whether the desire arises from fear or from love, from resentment or from joy. The sign of a true call will be a growing freedom, an undivided devotion to the Lord, and a love for the Church.
Encouragement for those who live single without a formal vow. Many Christians are single not by a deliberate vocational choice but by providence. Matthew 19:11–12 dignifies their lives. The Church should affirm that such lives can be deeply fruitful. The Isaianic promise of “a name better than sons and daughters” remains for them. Participation in the Church’s ministries, anchoring in small groups, mentoring, and hospitality can weave singles into the fabric of the Church’s family.
Honor for those who have suffered harm. Jesus’s category of those “made eunuchs by men” obligates the Church to compassion and justice for those whose bodies or futures have been damaged by others’ sins. The Church must be a sanctuary of healing and a voice for the vulnerable. The Gospel heals shame by bestowing an everlasting name.
Teaching for the whole Church. Pastors should teach regularly that both marriage and celibacy are holy. Where the Church has idolized marriage, the celibate vocation corrects the idol. Where the Church has misunderstood celibacy, marriage corrects the misunderstanding by displaying the goodness of embodied covenant love. The Church should celebrate solemn commitments to celibate service with public prayer and standing support, just as it celebrates weddings.
A Kingdom imagination. Jesus’s hyperbolic way of speaking aims to reshape imagination. Plucking out an eye is not the point. Mutilating the body is not the path. The point is radical holiness and readiness for mission. A Kingdom imagination sees celibacy not as deprivation, but as strategic availability to the Lord, the poor, the lost, and the work of prayer that undergirds visible ministries.
Receive What is Given
Jesus ends with an invitation: “Let the one who is able to receive this receive it” (Matthew 19:12, ESV). That word remains for the Church today. The Spirit distributes gifts as He wills. Some will be called to marriage, and in that calling, they must live with fidelity, forgiveness, and fruitfulness. Some will be called to celibacy for the Gospel, and in that calling, they must live with purity, prayer, and service. Some will find themselves single for a season or a lifetime and may discover along the way that the Lord has quietly given them the gift of living with joy and holy focus. To all, Jesus gives Himself. In Him there is a house and a name that no power can cut off. To those who have been so from birth, to those damaged by others, and to those who choose the narrow path for the Kingdom, Jesus offers the same promise He offered to the Ethiopian traveler: the Scriptures fulfilled in Him, the Gospel proclaimed, and the waters of baptism where names are written in the household of God.
Therefore, let the Church honor what the Lord honors. Let the Church teach what the Lord teaches. Let those who are able to receive this receive it, by grace. And let all, married and unmarried, live even now as citizens of the future Kingdom, where Christ is all in all and where every name is known and cherished before the Father.
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