Theme · ethical
Marriage and Family
God creates humanity male and female and establishes marriage as the foundational human relationship: 'A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.' The patriarchal narratives are family stories — promises of descendants, sibling rivalry, barrenness and miraculous birth. The prophets use marriage as a metaphor for God's relationship with Israel, with infidelity as adultery. Jesus affirms marriage's creation design and elevates singleness as an equally valid calling. Paul casts marriage as a mystery pointing to Christ and the church, and the household codes shape family life around mutual love and sacrificial service.
Passages expressing this theme
- 1Cor 7:2 — Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
- 1Cor 7:3 — Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
- 1Pet 3:7 — Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hinder
- Col 3:18 — Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
- Col 3:19 — Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
- Col 3:20 — Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
- Col 3:21 — Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
- Deut 6:6 — And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
- Deut 6:7 — And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
- Eph 5:22 — Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
- Eph 5:25 — Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
- Eph 5:31 — For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
- Eph 5:32 — This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
- Eph 6:1 — Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
- Eph 6:4 — And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
- Exod 20:12 — Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
- Exod 20:14 — Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Gen 1:27 — So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
- Gen 1:28 — And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over ever
- Gen 2:18 — And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
- Gen 2:24 — Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
- Heb 13:4 — Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
- Mal 2:14 — Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
- Mal 2:16 — For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherou
- Matt 19:4 — And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,