intimacy
What does the Bible say about intimacy? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
13 passages · most helpful first
4May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
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.
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.
19Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter toward them.
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.
18Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body.
15Did not One make her, and is she not the remainder of his spirit? And what does one seek, except offspring of God? So then, preserve your spirit, and do not despise the wife of your youth.
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, 4that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God,
3But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints,
5Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,
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.
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. 8And finally, may you all be of one mind: compassionate, loving brotherhood, merciful, meek, humble, 9not repaying evil with evil, nor slander with slander, but, to the contrary, repaying with blessings. For to this you have been called, so that you may possess the inheritance of a blessing. 10For whoever wants to love life and to see good days should restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips, so that they utter no deceit. 11Let him turn away from evil, and do good. Let him seek peace, and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears are with their prayers, but the countenance of the Lord is upon those who do evil.
2But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.