I am sorry my friend, but when the scriptures say the husband of one wife, that clearly says MARRIED.
Yes, many men had more that one wife and the verse is used to say NO POLOIGAMY!
However, even then the words clearly say "Husband of one wife".
2.
The context Jesus was in was that the Jews, scribes and Pharisees used the name of Rabbi and FATHER.
Jesus said, “call no man on Earth your Father,” (Matt. 23: 19), yet St. Paul says, “I became your father through the Gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15). St. Paul warns earlier in that epistle, though, that there is no Paul or Apollos, only Christ (1 Cor. 1:12-13).
And this is the key that ties it all together.
Christ warns us not to call any man our father so as not to create an alternative to God, a figure to draw us away from God. If we are a Christian but also a Marxist, we find Marx and Christ pulling us in different directions. But to be a follower of St. Paul is to be a follower of Christ. Paul’s fatherhood draws you in to the One Divine Father.
And from those same notes, “God is jealous of Baal, not Moses; of Mammon, not Peter. God’s jealousy is of anything which draws us away from Him.”
Christ denounced the Pharisees for creating a separate set of allegiances, obedience to a rabbinical tradition that interfered with their ability to follow the Ten Commandments (Mark 7:9-13). In Catholicism, there is no separate allegiance.
1. Paul said it is better not marry, that he believes it is better for a person to remain unmarried(even as he is).
1 Cor 7:6-9
6 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.
7
For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows,
it is good for them if they abide even as I.
9
But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
A man can be married to the Church(or rather married to God/Christ) being married in the spirit, as well as being married to a woman in the flesh.
Romans 7:4
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Ephesians 5:25-32
25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh;
but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery:
but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
So when a man desires the office of bishop he must meet all the requirements befitting a man of that office. So one man may be married to the Church with no wife(in the biological/traditional sense) and another man may be married to a flesh and blood woman(being married in the flesh) but in the spirit married to the Church/Christ. But both men are eligible for the office of bishop, just as Paul(who was unmarried) was able to be an Apostle. One is married body and spirit to the Church minding only the things of God(As Paul did) and the other is married in the spirit to the Church but in the body/flesh to his wife of flesh, the former is better than the latter because he only cares for the things of Lord and doing that which pleases him.
1 timothy 3
1 This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
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?)
1 Cor 7:32-35
32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
Though I do agree that it is wrong for a person to forbid another to marry as Paul warned us people would come teaching these things contrary to the doctrine he has delivered unto us.
1 Timothy 4:1-5
1 N
ow the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
God bless you brother.
