Is it a sin to not have kids?
Scripture calls children a gift, and commends the single life too
In short
Be fruitful and multiply is a blessing given to humanity, and Scripture consistently treats children as a gift. It also holds up Paul, Jesus and others who had none, and Paul argues that the unmarried and childless are freer for other work. Reading the command as binding on every couple has to explain them.
What the text says
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
1 Corinthians 7:32 was the verse of the day on June 27, 2024. See that day
Often brought inPsalms 127:3
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Children are called an inheritance and a reward. The language is warm and it is about gift, which fits poorly with reading childlessness as failure.
The counterweight1 Corinthians 7:32
But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
Paul argues the unmarried are freer to serve, and he means it as commendation. The New Testament's most influential writer is childless and recommends the state.
What Christians agree on
Children are a gift and not a burden to be avoided, and openness to life is part of the Christian view of marriage. No tradition teaches that the infertile have sinned, which already establishes that childlessness itself is not the offence.
Where they disagree
Catholic teaching
Marriage is ordered toward children by its nature, and a couple who marry intending permanently to exclude them have not entered marriage as the church understands it.
Most Protestant teaching
Children are a blessing rather than an obligation. The creation mandate is given to humanity, and Scripture holds up fruitful lives that produced no children at all.
Those who focus on the reason
The question is what lies underneath. Declining children out of fear or self-protection is worth examining; declining in order to give your life to something else is a different matter.
Questions worth asking
- Have my spouse and I actually decided this together, or has it happened by drift?
- What is underneath the reluctance - and would I say it out loud?
- Am I asking whether it is permitted, or looking for permission I already gave myself?
Some people arrive here after years of trying, and for them the question is cruel rather than theoretical. No Christian tradition teaches that infertility is sin, which means childlessness in itself was never the offence being discussed.
Also relevant
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