And if a woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.
How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,
be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, an Elamite, said to Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the people of the land, yet in spite of this, there is hope for Israel.
So now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God. Let it be done according to the Law.
Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!
Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.
Must we now hear that you too are doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”
Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he belongs to the Lord.
Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,
who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.
John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne,
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
. . .
and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.
Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.
. . .
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
“Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise),
“that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on the earth.”
One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
. . .
Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
. . .
To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If a brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.
And if a woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,
if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife,
then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,
and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.
because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel.
Now, therefore, make a confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from your foreign wives.”
Now, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, leaving it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
The LORD God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.”
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.
And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.
. . .
and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,
but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife.
“Does the LORD speak only through Moses?” they said. “Does He not also speak through us?” And the LORD heard this.
Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.
And suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three went out,
and the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had stepped forward,
. . .
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband praises her as well:
“Many daughters have done noble things, but you surpass them all!”
Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates.
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.
And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.
Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.