Cheryl Schatz

Craig,
There is a huge difference between a former murderer and a current polygamist. Paul was forgiven for his sin of murder and he stopped committing this sin. But one who is married to multiple women and living in that state would not be such an example. One is a “former” murderer, the other is a “current” polygamist. Let’s say that the man who was a polygamist came to Christ and became convicted that polygamy was wrong and he divorced all his wives except for the wife of his youth (original wife) and gave them support so they could live, I think he could qualify as being “the husband of one wife”. However it appears that he could not be forced to divorce his wives when he became a Christian, and some of the early church “rules” that I quoted show that he was to have a time of sorrow for his sin depending on the amount of wives he had. But no one was going to force him to divorce. Yet in that state he would still not be an example to the congregation in this particular area. There is no example of leadership that is “faithful to many wives”. It certainly is a sticky situation and I believe that the Bible set up the best possible solution with the higher Christian morals. No polygamist is to be set up as an example for the flock to follow just as no person who continues to divorce his/her spouse just to marry a new “love” would be a a godly example to the congregation.

So if your concern was about a “former” polygamist rather than a “current” polygamist, then we can agree that the past sins of the pre-Christian life will not hold us back from being a godly example.