choosing a mate

⁶Be anxious about nothing. But in all things, with prayer and supplication, with acts of thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. ⁷And so shall the peace of God, which exceeds all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Concerning the rest, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is chaste, whatever is just, whatever is holy, whatever is worthy to be loved, whatever is of good repute, if there is any virtue, if there is any praiseworthy discipline: meditate on these. ⁹All the things that you have learned and accepted and heard and seen in me, do these. And so shall the God of peace be with you.

¹⁴Do not choose to bear the yoke with unbelievers. For how can justice be a participant with iniquity? Or how can the fellowship of light be a participant with darkness?

¹⁰Who shall find a strong woman? Far away, and from the furthest parts, is her price. ¹¹The heart of her husband confides in her, and he will not be deprived of spoils. ¹²She will repay him with good, and not evil, all the days of her life. ¹³She has sought wool and flax, and she has worked these by the counsel of her hands. ¹⁴She has become like a merchant’s ship, bringing her bread from far away. ¹⁵And she has risen in the night, and given a prey to her household, and provisions to her maids.

³⁰Charm is false, and beauty is vain. The woman who fears the Lord, the same shall be praised.

¹⁹It is better to live in a deserted land, than with a quarrelsome and emotional woman.

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.

²⁰Whoever keeps step with the wise shall be wise. A friend of the foolish will become like them.

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.

⁷And the wisdom of the flesh is inimical to God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be.

³Will two walk together, unless they have agreed to do so?

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.

²⁰Listen to counsel and take up discipline, so that you may be wise in your latter days.

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

³³Yet truly, each and every one of you should love his wife as himself. And a wife should fear her husband.

⁹Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.”

¹⁴A house and its riches are given by parents. But a prudent wife is particularly from the Lord.

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

²⁹But I say to you, that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed like one of these. ³⁰So if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and cast into the oven tomorrow, how much more will he care for you, O little in faith? ³¹Therefore, do not choose to be anxious, saying: ‘What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek all these things. Yet your Father knows that you need all these things. ³³Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you as well. ³⁴Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow; for the future day will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its evil.”

¹If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal. ²And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing. ³And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing. ⁴Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. ⁵Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. ⁶Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

²²Intentions dissipate where there is no counsel. Yet truly, they are confirmed where there are many counselors.

²⁴For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.

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