What Does the Bible Say About Marriage Obligation?

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1 Corinthians 7:39 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

Luke 16:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Matthew 19:7-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

1 Peter 2:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

1 Corinthians 7:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

(but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

Romans 7:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Romans 7:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

Acts 22:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Acts 17:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Acts 2:38 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 12:48 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

John 8:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

They said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

Mark 10:10-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Mark 10:2-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ...

Mark 10:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

Mark 6:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.”

Mark 6:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.

Matthew 19:10-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:3-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ...

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ...

Matthew 14:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife,

Matthew 5:31-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 5:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’

Malachi 2:14-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

Jeremiah 3:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth— will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.” ...

Song of Solomon 4:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies. ...

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

Deuteronomy 22:13-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. ...

Exodus 21:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

38 Bible Verses about Marriage Obligation

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:39 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 16:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:7-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 2:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 7:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 7:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 22:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 17:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 2:38 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 12:48 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 8:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 10:10-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 10:2-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 10:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 6:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 6:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:10-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:3-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 14:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:31-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Malachi 2:14-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jeremiah 3:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Song of Solomon 4:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 22:13-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Exodus 21:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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