In One of Your Replies, You Said a Minister Should Marry a Virgin. in Another of Your Replies, You Said There Is No Restriction Binding the Minister?
1) Direct answer
There is no New Testament law that binds a minister to marry a virgin. But because he is to be an example, the safest, cleanest counsel is: if he marries, he should seek a pure, never‑before‑bound woman. Still, if she is not a virgin, yet is not bound to a living husband and walks clean in Christ, he is not disqualified from marrying her.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Ministerial qualifications: The Bible says a bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, ruling well his house (1 Timothy 3:2–5; Titus 1:6). Notice, it does not command that his wife be a virgin.
- Marriage bonds: The Bible says a wife is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he is dead, she is free to be married only in the Lord (Romans 7:2–3; 1 Corinthians 7:39). And, “whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery” (Luke 16:18). So a minister must not marry a divorced woman whose first husband is living.
- Purity pattern: Now notice, the high priest was to take a wife in her virginity (Leviticus 21:13–14), and Christ presents to Himself a chaste virgin Bride (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27). This shows the ideal of purity for those who serve at the altar and represent Christ to the church.
- Grace and new life: If a person’s past is under the Blood, “old things are passed away… all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But new birth does not cancel the marriage bond while a former spouse lives (Romans 7:2–3).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- There is a difference between a binding command and wise counsel. The New Testament commands one wife, a clean testimony, and no union that violates the marriage bond. It does not legislate virginity for a minister’s wife.
- The ideal counsel follows the Bible’s purity pattern: a minister, if he marries, should choose a woman with no former marital bond and a clean life, so there is no reproach on the ministry.
- Yet if she is not a virgin but is free to marry (single or a widow) and lives upright in the Lord, Scripture does not forbid that union.
4) Reinforcing statement
So the two statements harmonize this way: “should marry a virgin” speaks to the ideal; “no restriction binding” affirms there is no New Testament law making virginity a requirement—only the clear boundaries of one wife, a clean life, and no marriage that violates an existing bond.
To get the full context and background as well as proper understanding, you MUST read the following answers also:
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/in-the-new-testament-is-there-a-requirement-that-a-minister-of-the-5-f-11636dc
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/in-the-new-testament-is-there-a-requirement-that-a-minister-of-the-5-f-a71db34
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/if-a-minister-should-marry-a-virgin-then-what-was-the-blood-of-jesus-s-1d59d71
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/if-a-minister-of-the-5-fold-ministry-can-marry-a-widow-the-widow-is-no-e5ccd10
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/is-it-true-that-the-widow-of-a-minister-can-only-remarry-a-minister-9af3c0d
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/in-one-of-your-replies-you-said-a-minister-should-marry-a-virgin-in-an-bdc33ea