Top 7 Bible Verses For Couples

What top Bible verses are intended for couples?  What would you consider among the top Bible verses for couples?

A Three Fold Cord

Ecclesiastes 4:11-12 “Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

If you read the entire chapter of Ecclesiastes eleven you will see that this is talking about the necessity of two being better than one.  We can easily see that this could apply to marriage but it could also apply to close, godly friends as well.  One is easier to overpower than two who “can defend themselves” but what is even better is “A cord of three stands [because it] is not quickly (or easily) broken.”  When that third cord includes the Lord God, that is one strong cord indeed.  The lesson is that a marriage is stronger when the Lord is a part of it.

Not Good to be Alone

Genesis 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.”

After God had created everything, He would always follow it with “and it was good.” This is the first place in the Bible where God declares that something is not good; “It is not good that man should be alone [so God said]; I will make him an help meet for him.”  In other words, God knew that two are better than one and that man needed the woman to be his help meet (or helper).  The woman also needs the man and together it is “good” in God’s eyes.

Leave and Cleave

Genesis 2:22-25 “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

There are some very interesting points in these passages.  For one thing, God performed surgery on Adam and took a rib out of his side to create the woman named Eve.  This rib seems to point to the fact that they would stand side by side and share part of their anatomy and nature with each other.  That doesn’t mean that the man is to stand in front of the woman.  The man is then told to “leave his father and mother” to be “united to his wife” and then “become one flesh.”  What is often overlooked is the fact that the man is to leave his father and mother or we could put it this way.  He is to leave out of his new family his father and mother, meaning there should be no in-laws interfering with the new family that has been forged and formed by God.  Also he is to “leave and cleave” (some translations use the word “united to” or “cleave to or bonded to” like glue bonds two pieces of paper).  The man is to be bonded to his wife and the two who were once separate now become one in essence.   The Hebrew word for cling or be united to is “dabaq” which means “to cling to, to stick to, and to stay close to” which fits nicely for the institution that marriage is designed to be and one in which is a God –ordained, God-created institution.  This is why divorce hurts both the man and the woman. If you glue two pieces of paper together and then separate them, each is torn and part of the one remains with the other and by doing so, this leaves both pieces of paper compromised and much weaker than before, when they were both joined together.

Love and Respect

Ephesians 5:33 “However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. “

Women and men are certainly different; that’s a no-brainer but a key difference is that men are commanded to love their wives “as he loves himself” while the woman is commanded to “respect her husband.”  The woman’s greatest need is to be loved while the man’s greatest need is to be respected.  This is not saying that women should not love their husbands and husbands should not respect their wives but we meet their greatest needs when husbands love their wives and the wife respects her husband.  Let me put it this way; when husbands love their wives they are respecting their needs and when wives respect their husbands they are showing that they love their husbands.  To meet each one at the point of their greatest need is that women give men what they crave…respect and what women crave…love.

Loving Submission

Colossians 3:18-19 “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.”

Many a husband take this text out of context and make it “wives, obey your husbands” when it is really saying “be subject to your husbands” but only “as is fitting in the Lord” which means that a wife doesn’t have to submit to her husband if it goes against what the Lord teaches in His Word the Bible.  Men and women are equals in God’s sight, co-heirs together in salvation so husbands are never to dominate their wives.  Husbands can make them bitter which may be why Paul followed the first verse with “love your wives and do not be embittered against them.”  I have yet to meet a wife who does not want to submit to a husband who loves them like Christ loves the church (Eph 5:25) and is willing to give his life for her.

Submitting to the Heads

Ephesians 5:22-25 “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.”

Men have to submit themselves to the Lord just as wives must submit themselves to the husband and since the man is the spiritual “head of the wife” and family, so the man must submit to Christ because He is Head of the Church.  For husbands, their love is to be like Christ’s love Who loved the church so much He “gave Himself up for her” (dying for her) so husbands much be willing to love their wives to the point of giving up their own selves…that is their own self-interests and own self-desires because that is what Jesus did for His bride, the church.

The Marriage Bed is Undefiled

Hebrews 13:4 “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

This command is to stay faithful to one another for only in marriage is sex honorable and a gift from God. Outside of the confines of marriage God has warned and promised to “judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” which means those having sex outside of the bonds of matrimony will be judged and any sex must only be with their marriage partner.  There is no exception anywhere in the Bible for having sex outside of marriage and there is only one exception for divorce and that is only for ongoing, unrepentant adultery.

Conclusion

If you are part of the Body of Christ, the church, you are betrothed or engaged to Jesus Christ.  Someday, perhaps soon, the Bridegroom will come for His Bride and wed her in the great marriage feast of the Lamb of God in the Kingdom of Heaven.  That day seems to be fast approaching and if you are not born again, that is if you have never repented and trusted in Christ, then you will be shut out of this marriage feast and assigned to a place of unending torment.  Choose today whether you will be in or shut out of the Kingdom and make today your day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2).

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon