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NASB | 1 Timothy 3:2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Timothy 3:2 Now an overseer must be blameless and beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, |
Subject: standards for a preacher/biship |
Bible Note: I agree with the statement that they could have been divorced and remarried and still serve as an elder. My statement never said anything to the contrary. What I did bring out, was the fact that if the brother had divorced his wife unscripturally (that is a reason besides that of fornication) and his wife, the innocent mate, choose to remain single, then he would not qualify to serve in the position of elder, until his wife remarried. That this was the meaning of Jesus' words in Mark 10:11, 12 is evident. There we read: "And he said to them: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if ever a woman, after divorcing her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.” If you read the context of that Jesus was referring to the fact that God had allowed the Israelites, out of the hard-headedness of their hearts, to get certificates of divorces, (which obviously were other reasons than on the grounds of fornication, as those ones, under the law were to be put to death.) But he set them straight as to the fact that God had yoked the man and woman together in the beginning and the "two would become one flesh" and "what God has yoked together let no man put apart." - Mark 10:1-9. We have already established the fact that Jesus did say that a divorceing on the grounds of fornication was legal and just in in Father's eyes. "Moreover it was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 However, I say to YOU that everyone divorcing his wife, except on account of fornication, makes her a subject for adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." - Matthew 5:31, 32. Thus, in God's eyes the innocent woman would be free to marry again if her husband had remarried, and thus had committed adultrey, or fornication against her. If she did remarry, and the man was repentant of his sins and came to be in good standing in the congregation, then perhaps he would qualify again to serve as an elder. But he would not as long as she remained free, that is single, and choose not to remarry. |