If that's true, why pursue marriage?

After hearing John Piper’s sermon about singleness, someone wrote in and asked (paraphrased), “If what you said about singleness is true, why should any single want to be married?”

He responded.

The only thing I would want to add, and I don’t think he would disagree, is that marriage does still appear to be the ‘default position’ (to use Mohler’s phrase). That is, most of the singles out there do not have the biblical gift of celibacy and therefore should be open to, trust God for, and pursuant of that gift, in God’s timing.

The different descriptive phrases (open to, trust God for, pursuant of) would rest differently on men and women since the men are called to pursue and the women to receive. But, this little addition notwitstanding, I believe Piper’s word about the ultimate plans and purposes of God and the possibility for singleness to be an occasion for tremendous spiritual growth and God-glorifying living is impossible to argue against biblically and therefore a needed component in a working theology of singleness.