I personally think it is great that he is open and honest with you about his thoughts...Doesn't sound like he is waiting for you to fail...rather that he loves you enough to want you to have the time you need to focus just on you and recovery.
It really kind drives it home what he, most likely, is saying. And yeah, why mess up such a good thing. It took me a year to fall in love with him (usually I go quickly, but the XABF really scared me into a shell), and I really am willing to wait. I just know we're meant to be. All the circumstances that led to us meeting and getting together. I just had a great feeling about him. I usually do the background check thing (since 2000 and don't apologize for it! I ain't a safety queen, but I do have children) and I did not for him. However, my second husband (nosey dill pickle) was more than happy to do it and was sorely disappointed when he told me that my boyfriend comes back so clean, he could work in his section (top secret junk at WPAFB, I can't even talk about it and had to get clearance, as well, when we were married, I get the super duper life, don't I? hahahahaha), and probably higher.. hahaha.. He has hated every man I've dated since we broke up. The first one had some major traffic junk (work related accident, company vehicle, he turned and had an accident), the second one (and the one that introduced me to crack) had felonies for theft and meth charges, plus a bunch of misdomeaners. I should have known. LOL. But this guy. Ya know what he's got? A parking ticket from 1991. Now, he's had his fair share of bad boy play. But we're talking he said he was a weekend warrior. Did the whole smoke pot and drink beer. Toot some coke once in a while. Took a couple pills, qualudes? IDK how to spell it, but it's junk that was long gone before my time. Anyway, he knows what it's like to use, but everything he did, he put right back down. So abuse it quite foreign to him. He's not touched a single thing, other than a couple beers, with his burger, now and again, since he was in his late 20's. He even copped to trying crack (I guess it was called freebasing or smoking cocaine then?), but hated the buzz. I told him it's a relief it didn't get him, because I could not go through another relationship like that.