A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
1 Timothy 3:2
Does being the husband of one wife, as required for the office of Bishop in 1 Timothy 3, mean that a divorced man should not be a pastor? The qualifications are for a Bishop and later on for a Deacon as well. A Bishop/Deacon and a Pastor are two different classifications. The qualification for a Bishop/Deacon to be the husband of one wife, contrary to the chagrin of some, is the disallowing of having multiple wives. If a Muslim or Mormon were to get saved, having multiple wives, they would not be qualified to be a Bishop or Deacon.
Some erroneously interpret this to mean that a man could only have one woman as a wife. But when God wants to say that he does.
1 Timothy 5:9 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,
The qualification could easily have been that a Bishop/Deacon must have been the husband of one woman, but it is not. A wife might die, and the man remarried; he would still be qualified. His separation from his wife may be biblically approved: a man receives Christ, and his wife says no way and leaves him.
1 Corinthians 7:12-15 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. … 15But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
Then there is always the acceptable separation due to infidelity.
The office of Bishop or Deacon is one thing, but there are no limiting qualifications for preaching and teaching except the lack of ability or study. Any elder can and ought to be pastoring the flock.
1 Peter 5:1-3 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3 Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
A Bishop/Deacon is chosen from the elders of an assembly.
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