marriage troubles

⁵Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend upon your own prudence.

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.

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

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.

¹²Hatred rises up from disputes. And charity covers all offenses.

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

²⁸And we know that, for those who love God, all things work together unto good, for those who, in accordance with his purpose, are called to be saints.

¹Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us be at peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²For through him we also have access by faith to this grace, in which we stand firm, and to glory, in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. ³And not only that, but we also find glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation exercises patience, ⁴and patience leads to proving, yet truly proving leads to hope, ⁵but hope is not unfounded, because the love of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶And so, now they are not two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.”

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.

¹²Concerning the rest, I am speaking, not the Lord. If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. ¹³And if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce her husband. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through the believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, whereas instead they are holy. ¹⁵But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. For a brother or sister cannot be made subject to servitude in this way. For God has called us to peace. ¹⁶And how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹⁰But to those who have been joined in matrimony, it is not I who commands you, but the Lord: a wife is not to separate from her husband. ¹¹But if she has separated from him, she must remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband should not divorce his wife.

⁹And I say to you, that whoever will have separated from his wife, except because of fornication, and who will have married another, commits adultery, and whoever will have married her who has been separated, commits adultery.”

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,

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

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

⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your uncertain life which have been given to you under the sun, during all the time of your vanity. For this is your portion in life and in your labor, with which you labor under the sun.

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,

¹⁶Rejoice always. ¹⁷Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸Give thanks in everything. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for all of you.

⁶In all your ways, consider him, and he himself will direct your steps.

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.”