marriage

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.

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

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.

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.

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. ⁷Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

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?

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.

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.

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.

⁹It is better to sit in a corner of the attic, than with a contentious woman and in a shared house.

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

¹⁸The Lord God also said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper for him similar to himself.”

²And great crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 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?”