10 Bible Verses for a Successful Marriage

What Does the Bible Tell Us about Marriage?

God is the author of marriage and he created it as a covenant between a man and a woman. 

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Gen. 2:18 

“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Gen. 2:23-24

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.” Mark 10:6-9

Jesus confirmed the permanent bond of marriage when he told the Pharisees: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’” And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one^.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” Matt. 19:4-6

Today’s culture has erroneously decided that you can marry anyone you “love,” even of the same sex. That is not a biblical marriage in the eyes of God. It is perversion. The marriage covenant between a man and a woman mirrors the new covenant God offers every believer in Christ. Just as couples make an oath to each other in the marriage ceremony and the husband becomes the head of the home, Christians make an oath to God to surrender their individual lives to Jesus as our headship. It’s a commitment. A covenant to let God’s Word, the Bible, guide every area of our life, especially our marriage!

10 Bible Verses for Marriage

A man and woman make a sacred vow before God and witnesses to scripturally become “one flesh” that no one should separate. God biblically describes his divine plan for marriage. He wants us to live and enjoy sexual relationships that are pleasurable, spiritual, and develop families. When people claim the Bible doesn’t denounce same sex marriage, they obviously haven’t read the Bible or are blinded to the truth by their own carnal desires.

Here are ten Bible verses from God to married couples and those considering marriage.

Ephesians 5:22-33 - Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Hebrews 13:4 - Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 7:2-5 - But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 

Proverbs 19:14 - House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

2 Corinthians 6:14 - Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

1 Peter 4:8 - Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Colossians 3:18-19 - Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

1 Peter 3:1-7 says that once married, God does not look at our prayers the same as when we were single. The previous verse 1 Peter 2:25 describe Jesus as the head of our home. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. (NLT)

Then Peter addresses both husbands and wives.

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Wives

In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives.

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do.

1 Peter 3:7 says if a husband does not treat his wife with respect, his prayer life will be a sham. We need to have healthy marriages for our prayers as a couple to be effective.

Husbands

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

Here are 5 ways to maintain a biblical and healthy marriage:

1. Set Marriage Goals

Every anniversary my husband and I set goals for the coming year and reevaluate what we accomplished in the previous year. No topic is off the table. It gives us an opportunity to discuss our spiritual, personal, and material plans and goals. A reflective and introspective time. Are we on the same page or do we need to reconsider our objectives for our marriage and family? 

2. Think of Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline

Since God created marriage, we should consider our marriage from a spiritual perspective and a vital part of our spiritual life is prayer. Couples should pray together daily as an intimate time of sharing our hearts and our souls together before the Lord. 

3. Marriage Is a Team Effort

Marriage is about giving 100% to the one you love unconditionally. The more you give lovingly, not grudgingly, the more you receive back. It never hurts to have a few guidelines you each agree to, but when you reduce the relationship to keeping tallies, it becomes a lose/lose relationship. 

Marriage teaches us to serve. Focus on marriage as a team effort and remember . . .   you’re on the same team.

4. Make Marriage Holy Not Always Happy

Marriage puts a spotlight on the shortcomings of us in areas where we need to change. Marriage is between two imperfect people, who will always disappoint and disillusion each other unless they keep perfect Jesus at the center of their relationship. That might sound like a bold statement, and certainly many Christian marriages fail, probably because they didn’t keep Jesus at the center of every decision, discussion, and disagreement.

Many issues subject a couple to divisive onslaughts attacking a marriage: finances, parenting, jealousy, in-laws, personalities, loneliness, illness, outside attractions, work . . . daily life. Statistics of crumbling marriages—even among Christians—indicate Satan is winning the spiritual battle in many homes because couples haven’t armed themselves with the only effective offensive weapon—the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God. 

We need to view our spouse as more than a lover. They are also a brother or sister in Christ.

5. Find Marriage Mentors

How many marriages might elude divorce if spouses had spiritual mentors praying for and with them, teaching them how to pray together, study their Bibles daily, and showing them how to put God back on the throne in their marriage and family?

Seek out couples you admire for their marriage and relationship with the Lord and ask them to mentor you. Then someday you can be mentors to other couples.

The Marriage Triangle

In the marriage ceremony, there are vows we make to each other. True intimacy. Grace. Unconditional love. Unyielding commitment. Sacrificial serving. Sexual purity. It brings us back to where we started to reread those vows to each other every anniversary. We framed our vows and put on the wall in our bedroom as a reminder of the love and commitment we made to each other on our wedding day.

In our premarital course, the pastor who married us would always start the discussion by drawing a triangle with a stick figure man in the left lower corner of the triangle. A stick figure woman in the right lower corner and God at the top of the triangle. His point was the closer we each moved toward God, the closer we moved toward each other. At the bottom of the triangle, without God, we were the furthest apart.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 was on our wedding invitation with a picture of a cross and two cords wrapping around it to remind us always that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Related Resource: Listen to our new, FREE podcast on marriage: Team Us. The best marriages have a teamwork mentality. Find practical, realistic ideas for strengthening your marriage. Listen to an episode here, and then head over to LifeAudio.com to check out all of our episodes:

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