Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
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,
. . .
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
when they see your pure and reverent demeanor.
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,
but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.
For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands,
A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.
For Adam was formed first, and then Eve.
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.
Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
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.
A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.
Houses and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
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.
Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.
Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as to a father. Treat younger men as brothers,
older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period.
You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.
You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
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.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:
. . .
Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
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,
. . .
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.
Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.
A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.
A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
By justice a king brings stability to the land, but a man who exacts tribute demolishes it.
A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.
. . .
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good and not harm all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
She rises while it is still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidservants.
“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.
Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.
But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
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?
I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.
But the married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife,
and his interests are divided. The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the work of the Lord, how she can be holy in both body and spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, how she can please her husband.
I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but in order to promote proper decorum and undivided devotion to the Lord.
See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
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.’”
So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.
Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.
Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them “man.”
For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
. . .
For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man.
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.
If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you.
. . .