For Marriage, Family & Parenting

What are God’s Thoughts about Marriage? We find the answer in the Bible Verses on Marriage. The Marriage Scriptures selected here will give you a good idea of God’s Thoughts on Marriage, husbands, wives, divorce and married life.

Some Bible Verses speak directly about Marriage, while other scriptures give background information or other insights.

Our First Collection of Marriage Scriptures brings together Key Verses from throughout the Bible. The Second Collection of Marriage Scriptures reveals further truth about Marriage and Relationship from the early chapters of Genesis. Jesus referred to these Scriptures as “In the Beginning”.

Key Marriage Scriptures

God Created Marriage
“And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, he made into a woman, and brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:22

A Husband is to Love his Wife
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” Ephesians 5:25

A Husband is to Cling to His Wife
“Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will cling to his wife: and they will be one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

A Wife it to Submit to Her Husband
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” Ephesians 5:22

God Hates Divorce
“For the LORD, the God of Israel, says he hates putting away (divorce): for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” Malachi 2:16

God Created Sex
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:17

God Wants Marriages to Produce Godly Children
“And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And why one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” Malachi 2:15

Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness in the Home
“And be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32

Love is Awesome
“Love suffers long, and is kind; love does not envy; love does not promote itself, is not puffed up, does not behave badly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” 1Corinthians 13:4-8

Marriage is a Covenant – so God is Part of Every Marriage
“… the LORD hath been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.” Malachi 2:14

God Joins the Couple Together so their Sexual Intimacy is not Sinful
“What therefore God has joined together, do not let man put asunder (separate).” Mark 10:9

“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” Hebrews 13:4

IN THE BEGINNING
The Bible gives great significance to the origins of marriage – both in the historical record given in the book of Genesis and by the specific directing of people’s attention to the “beginning” by Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul. So it is valuable to note what these Marriage Scriptures teach from the book of Genesis.

Marriage Scriptures from the Old Testament

God Created Everything (Genesis 1:1)
So God is the boss of human experience and calls the shots about everything we do.

God Created Mankind (Genesis 1:26)
So Man is not able to do what he wants, as he wants, but must be under God’s authority.

God Created Sex (Genesis 1:27)
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

This is the first reference to “male and female”, even though male and female animals had already been created.
So HUMAN sexuality is special and not to be derived by what the animals do. God created sex as a privilege and pleasure which mankind enjoys within marriage.

God Commanded Mankind to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

God decided that Man was best off if he had a bride (Genesis 2:18).

Woman was created as a “helper” for the man.
“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

God created the first woman out of a portion of the first man’s body.
“And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, he made into a woman, and brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:22)

The woman was given to the man and the man named her
(Genesis 2:23).  This signifies that the woman is made to be under the protection and authority of the man.

God pronounced that a man and a woman were to enter into marriage, creating a new nuclear family.
“Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will cling to his wife: and they will be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)

Marriage is made by a man and woman agreeing to be joined in a unique relationship. The Man initiates the union, by taking responsibility for his wife. The couple enter into a unique new place, called being “one flesh” (which was explained by Jesus 4,000 years later).

Man and Woman were originally innocent (Genesis 2:25).
The original state of mankind was later upset by the entrance of sin and selfishness into their lives. See Genesis 3 for the account of the entrance of sin.

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