[Mrs. Don-o]

Mmm, no. God doesn't say "You hafta be married with a family" in order to oversee a flock. Jesus wasn't married. Paul wasn't married. Jesus said some are unmarried for the Kingdom of God. And Paul said he thought, in his view, the unmarried state was preferable.

So many people ignore that!

[Iscool]

Mmm, no. God doesn't say "You hafta be married with a family" in order to oversee a flock.

The scripture has been posted countless times...Yet you apparently ignore it...Jerome even says the same thing...

Jesus wasn't married. Paul wasn't married.

Jesus wasn't providing teaching to his church (yet to be revealed)...And in view of the requirements for the church, likely Paul was widowed and had grown children...And what is obvious is that Paul was speaking to those out in the pews since there are instructions separately for the clergy...

So many people ignore that!

No one ignores that...They just look at it in context...Pauls says few will be able to follow Paul's idea...And of course Paul says it is not instruction from the Lord but Paul's own personal opinion...

[metmom]

Jesus said some are unmarried for the Kingdom of God.

Yes. SOME. Not all.

That does not mean that Jesus supports, encourages, or mandates a celibate priesthood.

The OT priests were not celibate. God never laid that on them.

[metmom]

Jesus wasn't married.

YET.

Of course Jesus would have been celibate at the time. Those betrothed are expected to be until the wedding ceremony. So Jesus was expected to be celibate because he wasn't married, not because He was in the ministry.

Paul wasn't married.

We don't know that for sure. He could have been at one point. There's simply no record of it either way in Scripture.