TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER
Among the qualifications listed for pastors and elders is the requirement that a man be the husband of one wife, a phrase some have taken to mean that unmarried men cannot serve in those roles. I believe that reading goes further than the text intends.
The apostle Paul himself appears not to have had a wife for most of his ministry, though he may have been a widower earlier in life, since reaching his standing within the Jewish world of his day typically required marriage.
Paul acknowledged elsewhere that ministers had a right to take a wife, but described it as a right rather than an obligation. The qualification is less about marital status and more about marital fidelity. A married man who leads must be singularly and completely devoted to his wife, avoiding not only adultery but any interest in another woman. This standard also excludes practices such as polygamy.
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, skillful in teaching,
1 Timothy 3:2
