if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 6. Without crime. See the like qualifications, 1 Timothy 3. Witham.—These words if taken in their strictest meaning, do not seem to have all the force Saint Paul meant them to have. For it is not sufficient that a bishop be free from great crimes; he ought, moreover to lead such a life as to draw others by his example to the practice of virtue. Calmet.—If we consult all antiquity we shall find, that if in the early infancy of the Church some who had been once married were ordained to the ministry, we shall find that after their ordination they abstained from the use of marriage. See S. Epiph. l. iii. cont. hær. and l. ii. hæres. 59.