Someone posed the question, “Did Paul have a wife?” No, the apostle Paul was unmarried, and he made reference to the fact that he was not married. During a period of what the apostle called “the present distress” (1 Corinthians 7:26), Paul advised unmarried Christians to remain unmarried like him. “For I wish that all men were even as I myself. …But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am” (1 Corinthians 7:7-9 NKJV).
On another occasion in the same New Testament epistle, the apostle Paul noted that though he was not married, he had a biblical right to be married and to derive financial support for his wife and himself from the Lord’s church (1 Corinthians 9:4-15). “Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?” (1 Corinthians 9:4-6). “…Nevertheless we have not used this right… But I have used none of these things…” (1 Corinthians 9:12, 15).
Other Gospel preachers and other apostles, too, were married. Since they devoted themselves fulltime to the ministry of the Word of God, they refrained from secular employment, and they and their families were supported by the church. However, the apostle Paul did not choose to marry. Noting the highly active evangelistic ministry of this apostle and the greater travel difficulties associated with the first century, Paul was probably able to be more active and of greater service to the cause of Christ because he was not married.
Marriage is highly esteemed in both testaments of the Bible. God instituted marriage in the Garden of Eden when He presented Eve to Adam (Genesis 2:21-22). “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Yet, God does not require everyone to enter into matrimony (1 Corinthians 7, 9). In some instances, God forbids some people to be married due to their biblical ineligibility (Matthew 5:32; 19:9).
