abusive marriages

¹⁹Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter toward them.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her,

⁷Similarly, you husbands should live with them in accord with knowledge, bestowing honor on the female as the weaker vessel and as co-heirs of the life of grace, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

²to speak evil of no one, not to be litigious, but to be reserved, displaying all meekness toward all men.

²⁸So, too, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

¹⁵But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. For a brother or sister cannot be made subject to servitude in this way. For God has called us to peace.

¹Most beloved, do not be willing to believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

⁴Whoever claims that he knows him, and yet does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

¹Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. ²But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³A husband should fulfill his obligation to his wife, and a wife should also act similarly toward her husband. ⁴It is not the wife, but the husband, who has power over her body. But, similarly also, it is not the husband, but the wife, who has power over his body. ⁵So, do not fail in your obligations to one another, except perhaps by consent, for a limited time, so that you may empty yourselves for prayer. And then, return together again, lest Satan tempt you by means of your abstinence. ⁶But I am saying this, neither as an indulgence, nor as a commandment.

¹²Concerning the rest, I am speaking, not the Lord. If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. ¹³And if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce her husband. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through the believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, whereas instead they are holy. ¹⁵But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. For a brother or sister cannot be made subject to servitude in this way. For God has called us to peace. ¹⁶And how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹A mild response shatters anger. But a harsh word stirs up fury.

¹⁶If you would hold hatred, dismiss her, says the Lord, the God of Israel. But iniquity will cover his garment, says the Lord of hosts. Preserve your spirit, and do not be willing to despise.

³And the Pharisees approached him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to separate from his wife, no matter what the cause?” ⁴And he said to them in response, “Have you not read that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female?” And he said: ⁵“For this reason, a man shall separate from father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife, and these two shall become one flesh. ⁶And so, now they are not two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.” ⁷They said to him, “Then why did Moses command him to give a bill of divorce, and to separate?” ⁸He said to them: “Although Moses permitted you to separate from your wives, due to the hardness of your heart, it was not that way from the beginning.

²⁹And if your right eye causes you to sin, root it out and cast it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into Hell.

⁹If we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just, so as to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity.

²And approaching, the Pharisees questioned him, testing him: “Is it lawful for a man to dismiss his wife?” ³But in response, he said to them, “What did Moses instruct you?” ⁴And they said, “Moses gave permission to write a bill of divorce and to dismiss her.” ⁵But Jesus responded by saying: “It was due to the hardness of your heart that he wrote that precept for you. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ⁷Because of this, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife.

¹Similarly also, wives should be subject to their husbands, so that, even if some do not believe the Word, they may benefit without the Word, through the behavior of these wives,

²⁷You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I say to you, that anyone who will have looked at a woman, so as to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

³So I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. But the head of woman is man. Yet truly, the head of Christ is God.

⁴May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.