What Does the Bible Say About Marriage?
One flesh, mutual love, covenant faithfulness — what Scripture teaches about marriage from Eden to Ephesians.
The Bible presents marriage as God’s own institution from Eden — “therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24) — a covenant of faithful, self-giving love that the New Testament says pictures Christ’s love for his church (Ephesians 5:25).
Made in Eden
Marriage is older than every nation and institution on earth — the Bible places it in the garden, before the fall, as God’s answer to the first “not good.” The leave-and-cleave pattern of Genesis 2:24 is quoted by Jesus himself as the Creator’s design: two becoming one flesh, joined by God. “What therefore God hath joined together,” he concludes, “let not man put asunder.”
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Love that gives itself
The New Testament’s marriage instruction climaxes in Ephesians 5, where each side receives a costly calling: husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church — that is, to the point of self-sacrifice — and spouses submit to one another in reverence for Christ. Marriage in Scripture is less a contract of benefits than a covenant of self-giving, each spouse rehearsing the gospel to the other.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
The chapter’s summary: love and reverence, each spouse’s deepest need named.
An honourable, guarded covenant
Hebrews calls marriage honourable in all — to be held in honour by everyone, married or not — and its bed undefiled, guarded by faithfulness. Ecclesiastes and Proverbs celebrate its companionship: live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest; a good spouse is favour from the LORD. The Bible is unembarrassed about marriage’s goodness and unbending about its promises.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.
Quick answers
- What is the main Bible verse about marriage?
- Genesis 2:24 — quoted by Jesus in Matthew 19:5 and Paul in Ephesians 5:31 — is the foundation text: leaving, cleaving, one flesh.
- What does the Bible say about love in marriage?
- Ephesians 5:25 sets the standard — husbands love “even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” — and 1 Corinthians 13 describes the patient, kind, enduring love that sustains any covenant.
- Does the Bible require marriage?
- No — both Jesus and Paul were unmarried, and Paul calls singleness a good gift with its own advantages for serving God (1 Corinthians 7:7–8). Marriage and singleness are both honoured callings.
