Danielle Treweek, Single Ever After: A Biblical Vision for the Significance of Singleness (The Good Book Company, 2025)

When I started preaching about singleness, someone told me that sermons about marriage tend to focus 75 per cent on what is good about marriage and 25 per cent on what’s hard about it, while sermons on singleness do the opposite. Dani Treweek’s new book Single Ever After refreshingly bucks that trend as she paints a vibrant picture of singleness that doesn’t shy away from the pain of it, but focuses predominantly on the purpose of it.

With keen observations about both Scripture and life in general, Dani addresses both singles and marrieds as she writes about grand themes such as sanctification, sex, sovereignty, purpose, and eternity, with humour and honesty. With spot-on descriptions and anecdotes, I was surprised that, even as a single Christian woman in my mid-40s, Single Ever After articulated some of the realities of singleness in ways that made me feel like I was reading a book by a friend who I have chatted with over countless cuppas, rather than someone I’ve never met who lives on the other side of the world.

Bold truth-telling

Dani is unafraid to call out unhelpful attitudes and behaviours in churches (for example, by assuming singles have all the time in the world to fill gaps on rotas, while failing to acknowledge that they shoulder a lot of everyday activities on their own – from food shops to arranging insurance to fixing things around the home). But she’s equally bold in reminding single Christians that we are called to live with pure minds, hearts and bodies, and are not free to be lusting after anyone, let alone sleeping with people we’re not married to.

Dani is unafraid to call out unhelpful attitudes and behaviours in churches.

Each chapter in Single Ever After has two parts – first, Dani explores biblical truths about singleness and marriage, addressing what we think, and tackling head-on our misconceptions; then she gets practical, helping us to see how to live well in light of the truth.

The book is an easy read on two fronts. The concepts are easy to understand and it's written for every believer – you don’t have to read your Bible in Hebrew and Greek or have a degree in theology to follow the arguments from Scripture, all of which are set out clearly. That said, Dani’s writing isn’t lightweight at all. There is a theological depth as she unpacks difficult passages such as 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul seems to say that single people should get married if they burn with passion, as if marriage is the answer to lust (1 Corinthians 7:9), and that married people should live as if they aren’t (1 Corinthians 7:29) and are ‘concerned about the affairs of the world’ (1 Corinthians 7:33 and 34) when he has written repeatedly that ‘the world’ is a bad thing!

Joy and devotion

But Single Ever After is also an easy read because Dani writes with sensitivity about the sorrow of singleness and with power about the joy and meaning that can be found in it. And by ‘found’, I don’t mean she leads us singles off on a faraway search for elusive treasure at the end of the rainbow. In fact, she shows us that the treasure is right in front of us, in the Scriptures that validate our singleness, but more than that, she shows us how we are uniquely called to set an example for our married friends, and point them towards an eternity where they, too, will be single.

Dani writes with sensitivity about the sorrow of singleness and with power about the joy and meaning that can be found in it.

If you’re single, Dani’s book will remind you or help you to see that your singleness is not a tragedy to be overcome, but an opportunity for ‘undivided devotion to the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 7:35). If you’re married, it will help you to help your single friends find greater joy and deeper intimacy with Jesus in their singleness, while also encouraging you to imitate their devotion to Jesus and learn from them.

The title Single Ever After might have depressed me a few years ago and made me not pick up the book. Lamenting the life I wanted but have not got, I probably would have read it back then and thought, ‘That’s right. Here I am stuck in circumstances I didn’t choose, don’t want, and feel powerless to change.’ But reading it now, as someone who gave up dating three years ago and has been finding increasing joy in my singleness, it filled me with hope that I worship a saviour who lived on earth as a single man, without a spouse, children, or sex, and yet lived such a fully human life that he is able to offer me ‘life in all its fullness’, even if I currently don’t have those things either.

This is a realistic, hope-filled read that leads singles and marrieds back to fixing our eyes on Jesus, and looking forward to the day when none of us will be married to each other, but we’ll all be married to him. I can’t wait for that day.