What Does the Bible Say About What Marriage Is?

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 12 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 / 8 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.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 6 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.

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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.

Ephesians 5:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Ephesians 5:25-26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Romans 5:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.”

Hebrews 4:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 Timothy 4:1-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. ...

1 Corinthians 7:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.

1 Corinthians 7:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

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. ...

Romans 7:3 ESV / 3 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 / 3 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.

Romans 6:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and 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.”

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Matthew 19:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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 19:1-30 ESV / 3 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’? ...

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 3 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.”

1 John 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 Peter 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

James 1:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

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 6:10-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ...

Ephesians 5:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Galatians 3:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 6:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 7:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 2 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 7:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

Romans 10:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

John 3:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

John 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 1:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Luke 19:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

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 5:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Amos 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Genesis 2:21-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 2:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, ...

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

55 Bible Verses about What Marriage Is

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:39 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 3:23 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:25-26 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 5:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 4:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 4:1-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

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

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

Romans 6:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 1:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

Ephesians 6:10-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 3:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 6:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 10:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 1:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 19:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

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

Amos 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:21-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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