Setting the Sexual Purity Standard

615 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, Continuing a look at qualifications for spiritual leaders in the New Testament church. It's important to realize the settings involved in planting these churches. They were starting from scratch! These new congregations were made up entirely of new converts, and they were coming from cultural backgrounds that were firmly rooted in the ways of the world. One of these practices was polygamy and still another involved temple prostitution, and the use of concubines. These unbiblical sexual practices needed to come to an end, and the Holy Spirit saw fit to begin with the leaders of the congregations. In order to be the pastor of these fledgling flocks, one needed to set the bar high in accordance with God's Word as it concerns marriage and sexual purity. This issue of multiple sex partners is not just some ancient problem in the church. As the gospel is preached to cultures who accept these practices today, many of the converts have multiple wives. What to do? Make them divorce all their wives and disown their children? Or should mercy be extended to these existing arrangements, with a line being drawn in the sand, that says these practices must come to an end? It would seem that the biblical concept of mercy trumping judgment ought to win out. It's a dicey situation to say the least, but the matter of multiple wives must be handled graciously and judiciously, while all other illicit sexual activity must be dealt with immediately, and the indigent pastor must be one who does not have multiple wives. What about the “multiple wives” that come into play in the matter of those who are divorced and remarried that desire the good work of pastoring in the modern day American church? This is a matter that the calling congregation needs to take into consideration, graciously and judiciously, relying on the guidelines found in the Word of God.