being a good husband

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.

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.

¹⁹You know this, my most beloved brothers. So let every man be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger. ²⁰For the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth: ¹⁹a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.

²Therefore, it is necessary for a bishop to be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, gracious, chaste, hospitable, a teacher,

²⁶“Be angry, but do not be willing to sin.” Do not let the sun set over your anger.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her, ²⁶so that he might sanctify her, washing her clean by water and the Word of life, ²⁷so that he might offer her to himself as a glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she would be holy and immaculate. ²⁸So, too, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹For no man has ever hated his own flesh, but instead he nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also does to the Church. ³⁰For we are a part of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

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.

⁹Let love be without falseness: hating evil, clinging to what is good, ¹⁰loving one another with fraternal charity, surpassing one another in honor: ¹¹in solicitude, not lazy; in spirit, fervent; serving the Lord; ¹²in hope, rejoicing; in tribulation, enduring; in prayer, ever-willing; ¹³in the difficulties of the saints, sharing; in hospitality, attentive. ¹⁴Bless those who are persecuting you: bless, and do not curse.

¹⁴Bless those who are persecuting you: bless, and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Weep with those who are weeping. ¹⁶Be of the same mind toward one another: not savoring what is exalted, but consenting in humility. Do not choose to seem wise to yourself. ¹⁷Render to no one harm for harm. Provide good things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men. ¹⁸If it is possible, in so far as you are able, be at peace with all men. ¹⁹Do not defend yourselves, dearest ones. Instead, step aside from wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine. I shall give retribution, says the Lord.”

⁴And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but educate them with the discipline and correction of the Lord.

³²But I say to you, that anyone who will have dismissed his wife, except in the case of fornication, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever will have married her who has been dismissed commits adultery.

⁵For this reason, I left you behind in Crete: so that those things which are lacking, you would correct, and so that you would ordain, throughout the communities, priests, (just as I also ordained you) ⁶if such a man is without offense, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of self-indulgence, nor of insubordination. ⁷And a bishop, as a steward of God, must be without offense: not arrogant, not short-tempered, not a drunkard, not violent, not desiring tainted profit, ⁸but instead: hospitable, kind, sober, just, holy, chaste, ⁹embracing faithful speech which is in agreement with doctrine, so that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to argue against those who contradict.

³¹Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and outcry and blasphemy be taken away from you, along with all malice.

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

³Old women, similarly, should be in holy attire, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teaching well, ⁴so that they may teach prudence to the young women, so that they may love their husbands, love their children,

²²He who has found a good wife has found goodness, and he shall draw contentment from the Lord. He who expels a good wife expels goodness. But he who holds on to an adulteress is foolish and impious.