husbands and wives

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.

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

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.

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

²²Wives should be submissive to their husbands, as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church. He is the Savior of his body. ²⁴Therefore, just as the Church is subject to Christ, so also should wives be subject to their husbands in all things. 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.

²²Wives should be submissive to their husbands, as to the Lord.

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

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.

³¹“For 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.”

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

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, ²as they consider with fear your chaste behavior. ³For you, there should be no unnecessary adornment of the hair, or surrounding with gold, or the wearing of ornate clothing. ⁴Instead, you should be a hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptibility of a quiet and meek spirit, rich in the sight of God. ⁵For in this way, in past times also, holy women adorned themselves, hoping in God, being subject to their own husbands. ⁶For so Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You are her daughters, well-behaved and unafraid of any disturbance.

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.

¹It is a faithful saying: if a man desires the episcopate, he desires a good work. ²Therefore, it is necessary for a bishop to be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, gracious, chaste, hospitable, a teacher, ³not a drunkard, not combative but restrained, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴but a man who leads his own house well, having children who are subordinate with all chastity. ⁵For if a man does not know how to lead his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God? ⁶He must not be a new convert, lest, being elated by pride, he may fall under the sentence of the devil.

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.

¹⁴And above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection.

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

²³For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church. He is the Savior of his body.