POLYGAMY - OBJECTIONS, Q & A (9) EACH MAN HIS OWN WIFE, EACH WOMAN HER OWN HUSBAND

1 Cor 7:2 says that because of immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. The "wife" and "husband" are singular, so it would be wrong to be polygamous.

One will have to read into the context of the passage (starting from verse 1), which is about an advice on how to stay away from wrong sexual activities. That is, a man should not sexually touch a woman except one whom he marries and a woman should not sexually touch a man except one whom she marries. It's like saying, don't take another person's shirt, buy and wear only your own shirt. But that does not in any way imply any instruction that 1 man is allowed to possess only 1 shirt. It says nothing about how many. It simply means that when there is a need, wear one which you have paid for, don't wear that which is not yours. That is, have sex with one that you marry (your own) and not with one that is another's.

In the same passage, we see another principle. To prevent wrong sex among those who are married, it also implies that a monogamous man should be polygamous if necessary, to prevent himself from irresponsible sex. For example, if his present wife is incapable or incapacitated from pleasing him. But of course, teaching it this way would offend many, yet many a times, it is a real need, a compulsion that is met in immoral ways before God.

What would you do if you have no shirt or if 1 shirt is insufficient - buy shirts, right? And, whatever you buy, you have to pay in full. That's why a marriage is needed - responsibility to keep, not a case of how many. We should also say, if a person is not responsible to pay for a shirt (or a wife), he has to go without one. So the principle here is not how many one can own, but the principle of meeting in a responsible way - marriage, that Paul was talking about.

If Paul's advice is intended to mean that a man can have only one wife, then it should be written as, "Because of immorality, each man is to have only one wife and each woman is to have only one husband" which was certainly not the case.

Copyright © Israel CS Lim, 1998