Order and Celibacy

Catholics have long defended celibacy on the basis that the unmarried can give undivided service to Christ. They cite I Corinthians 7 concerning the married and the unmarried.

I Corinthians wasn't talking about leaders but people in general. Somehow the Catholics switched it to leadership. They require leaders to be celibate but encourage marriage and children among the general population. I Corinthians was covering virgins to widows. It spoke nothing of church leaders in its context.

Church leadership that Paul covered In I Timothy 3 and Titus saw a relationship where both the husband and wife were spiritual, I Corinthians 7 covered scenarios where one spouse was not a Christian yet.

One way to know that Paul wasn't speaking of church leaders in I Corinthians 7 is the order of the New Testament books chronologically.

The document that said bishops had wives came after the document talking about the married and unmarried.

I Corinthians was written in 62 AD and I Timothy was written in 65 AD. So three years after the marriage passage.

Three years after writing the Corinthian passage he wrote that Elders/Bishops were married.

Paul did not mean for the Corinthian passage to lead to celibacy.

1Co 7:34  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.

Thus he is talking about women who Catholics deny leadership roles. In the same chapter he wrote they could marry if they chose.

Then three years later he wrote.

1Ti 3:2  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;