What does the Bible say about men and women living together?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible teaches that sexual union and shared domestic life belong within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, marked by faithfulness, holiness, and mutual care. Genesis 2:18 and 2:24 present marriage as God’s good design for companionship and becoming one flesh, a pattern affirmed in Ephesians 5:31. Hebrews 13:4 calls marriage honorable and warns against sexual immorality, while 1 Corinthians 6:18 urges believers to flee it. Jesus’ conversation in John 4:16-18 shows that living with someone outside marriage does not make the relationship a marriage. Christians should therefore pursue chastity, repentance, and wise, accountable arrangements that honor Christ.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • 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 6:18

    Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • John 5:30

    I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.

  • Leviticus 18:22

    "'You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestible.

  • Ecclesiastes 4:9-11

    [9] Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. [10] For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn't have another to lift him up. [11] Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone?

  • Ephesians 5:31

    "For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh."

  • 1 Corinthians 7:10-11

    [10] But to the married I command--not I, but the Lord--that the wife not leave her husband [11] (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

  • John 4:16-18

    [16] Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." [17] The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,' [18] for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."

Related topics

Go deeper

Ask Explain Bible AI about men and women living together and get a fuller answer from a Reformed theological perspective.

Ask what the Bible says about men and women living together