Yet today I am a divorced and currently unmarried elder in an independent Christian Church of the Restoration Movement. When I felt called to step up, I had to come to the same conclusion you did, that “husband of one wife” is best understood as “one woman man.”

I’m reminded of the fellow in the CoC congregation, a lifelong member who insisted that a man with only one child could not be an elder, because the Word says you must have children. I asked, “Okay, so if you have one child and I ask you if you have children, are you going to say no?” He replied, “I wouldn’t want to risk hell for getting it wrong.”

That blew my mind. Didn’t Paul say in Galatians that Christ set us free for freedom’s sake? I think we risk putting on the yoke of slavery when we subdivide the word this far.