Pastor's Wives Ministry

Pastor’s Wives Ministry

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Pastor’s Wives Ministry is a hard look at those few individuals who believe that they can be a pastor without a wife.

The Biblical Requirement

If we trash the authority of the Bible, then anything goes, and we can even see homosexual and lesbian pastors. But we do not do this. So we turn to Scripture to get our bearing here.

1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

God clearly makes a requirement for the pastorate is that the pastor must be…

  1. Male
  2. Married
  3. Married to only 1 woman
  4. He will then have a “home,” and he must govern his house well, because that is the basis for governing the church.

Male

We cannot see any way to interpret the text and do it justice to the language without requiring that the pastor be a man. This is a given. God has decided that the men are to be the leaders. (See section below about 1 Timothy 2).

Married

While I have heard of single men using the excuse that this was a cultural thing of the time of Paul, I do not see any warrant for that. If you do that here, you can overturn any commandment or norm or standard or instruction by doing the same thing. Yes, there are cultural differences between our day and Paul’s day. On the basis of what exposition do you find authority to pick and hit this item and then that one without anything in the text to indicate it? Are the people who do this really following Scripture or what they want personally?

Married to only one woman

I do not know how to take this requirement really. If as so many want to make it, this is not about divorce and marrying a divorced woman, or being divorced and remarried, then what is it about? Were Christians marrying multiple wives in the time of Paul like Abraham?

Some say it means not to be married to more than one wife at a time. In other words, divorce completely the first wife before you take the second one. This is just wrong also.

I do not this refer anything to a pastor who loses his first wife and remarries. It just doesn’t fit the until death do we part aspect of marriage.




After you have twisted this verse into a pretzel in order to fit your desires, check it with verse 2. The Bishop is to be blameless. Does that check with your version of things? A pastor with a single and only wife checks. A pastor whose first wife has died and he remarries checks. Nothing else I have ever heard checks.

Govern his home well

The parallel drawn is that the pastor handles the governance of his family in much the same way as he governs the church. A wifeless pastor doesn’t have a clue about these things.

1 Timothy 3 Context

1 Timothy 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. 11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

If we understand that our Bible has helps, the chapter and verse divisions, then we can forget them for a minute and go back to original manuscripts and everything is one long running letter. The context (verses 9-12) has to be referring to the same issues as chapter 3.

In the matter of requiring only men to be pastors, 2:9 through 11 clearly disqualifies all women pastors.

Why do Pastor’s wives get a pass but Deacon wives don’t?

Apparently the deacon wives were to accompany their husbands in their ministry. This should cause us to consider some things. If the deacon is basically a servant of the type to do manual labor, then their wives would be under the same stipulations and requirements as their husbands. Maybe the deacon was to take food goods directly to people’s houses and thus the wife would be in different people’s  houses, and she should refrain from gossip, mettling, etc. She is there to make sure nothing inappropriate can happen. Many times a supposed “Christian sister” is not saved, and inappropriate things could happen, or the deacon could be accused of sure. Having his wife with him prevents any of that.

Contrary to our practice today, the wife of the pastor is to make his home life stable and exemplary. She is not to take on all the church’s burdens with the cleaning of the church, the church widows and orphans, the sick, etc.  She is to concentrate on her husband and his ministry. That would explain why she is not required of things. Absolutely she should be of high moral character as a Christian woman.

Pastor’s Wives Ministry

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