What does the Bible say about healthy marriage?
Bible Topic · WEB
The Bible teaches that marriage is a holy covenant in which a man and woman become one flesh, serving God through faithful, loving companionship. Genesis 2:18 and 2:24 present marriage as God’s good design for mutual help and lifelong union, affirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6. Husbands are called to sacrificial, Christlike love, and wives and husbands alike to reverence and submit to one another in humility (Ephesians 5:21, 25, 33). Marriage honors sexual faithfulness and mutual care (Hebrews 13:4; 1 Corinthians 7:3). Through patience, kindness, forgiveness, and enduring love, described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Christian couples display Christ’s covenant love for his church.
Top passages, ranked by readers
Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;
- Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
- 1 Corinthians 7:3
Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
- Hebrews 13:4
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- 1 Peter 3:7
You husbands, in like manner, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered.
- Ephesians 5:21
subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
- Genesis 2:18
Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
- Ephesians 5:33
Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
[4] Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, [5] doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; [6] doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; [7] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- Matthew 19:4-6
[4] He answered, "Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, [5] and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?' [6] So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don't let man tear apart."
Related topics
Go deeper
Ask Explain Bible AI about healthy marriage and get a fuller answer from a Reformed theological perspective.
Ask what the Bible says about healthy marriage