Let ministerial servants be husbands of one wife, presiding in a right manner over children. —1 Tim. 3:12, NW.

At the Jewish village or city recording office where genealogies of families were kept the children of marriage were registered and thus each child could trace its ancestry. The husband was also registered as the legal son of his father-in-law. All this arrangement made for the legal protection of the rights of both the husband and the wife and also of the children. It held each one responsible for personal conduct toward the other in the family and marriage relationship. The Jews were the first to become Christians and they carried this arrangement over into the Christian congregation. This makes it right and proper for common-law marriage couples today who become consecrated Christians to legalize their marriage and thus bind themselves before the law as well as before God to be true and loyal to each other. This opens the way to enter fully into privileges in the organization and to act as appointed servants in it. W 4/15