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I’ve recently been thumbing through old boxes of photographs and letters so that I can organize them for better storage. Today I found a journal entry from my first year of marriage where I unpacked a few pieces of scripture. The entry was titled “Godly Wife Bible Verses” and I thought I’d share my findings with you. I’m not claiming to be a “godly wife” by any means. I am a work in progress and I believe that process is beautiful in and of itself. I’m sharing these verses for anyone who wants to humble their hearts and ask the Lord for strength to pursue godliness within the confines of modern day marriage.

Genesis 2:24 = That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. The marital relationship was established as the first human institution. The union of husband with wife represents the inauguration of a new and primary responsibility. “United” carries the sense of a permanent or indissoluble union, so that divorce was not considered. “One flesh” speaks of a complete unity of parts making a whole…one cluster, one God in 3 persons: thus this martial union was complete and whole with two people. This also implies their sexual completeness. One man and one woman constitute the pair to reproduce. Permanent monogamy was and continues to be God’s design and law for marriage. Proverbs 5:18 = May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. God offers to bless male procreation when it is confined to one’s wife. It should be noted that, in spite of the sinful polygamy of David and Solomon, as well as the disastrous polygamy of Rehoboam, the instruction here identifies God’s ideal as one wife from youth on. 1 Peter 4:8 = Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins. The Greek word for “deeply” means to be stretched, to be strained. It is used of a runner who is moving at maximum output with taut muscles straining and stretching to the limit. This kind of love requires the Christian to put another’s spiritual good ahead of his own desires in spite of being treated unkindly, ungraciously, or even with hostility. Quoted from Proverbs 10:12, it is the nature of true spiritual love, whether from God to man or Cristian to Christian, to cover sins. It means specifically that a Christian should overlook sins against him or her if possible, and always be ready to forgive insults and unkindnesses. Proverbs 12:4 = A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. This speaks of suffering that is like a painful and incurable condition. Proverbs 14:1 = The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. Proverbs 18:22 = He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord. Proverbs 19:13 = A foolish child is a father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like the constant dripping of a leaky roof. An obstinate, argumentative woman is literally like a leak so unrelenting that one has to run from it or go insane. Here are two ways to devastate a man: an ungodly son and an irritating wife. Proverbs 31:10 = A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. She does exist, but is very hard to find. 1 Timothy 3:11 = In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trust worthy in everything. “Malicious talkers” is the plural form of diabolos — a title frequently given to Satan. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 = Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. The futility of labor alone without satisfaction and without any heir to experience its value is addressed. Life is better with companionship. 1 Corinthians 7:2 = The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yield it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. There is a great danger of sexual sin when single. Marriage is God’s only provision for sexual fulfillment. Marriage should not be reduced simply to that, however, Paul has a much higher view and articulates it in Ephesians 5: 22-23. He is, here, stressing the issue of sexual sin for people who are single. Married believers are not to sexually deprive their spouses. While celibacy is right for the single, it is wrong for the married. The practice of deprivation may have been most common when a believer had an unsaved spouse. By the marriage covenant, each partner is given the right over the spouse’s body for the satisfaction of the other. Ephesians 5:22 = Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Having established the foundational principle of submission. Paul applied it to fist to the wife. The command is unqualified, applying to every Christian wife. The command is unqualified, applying to every Christian wife, no matter what her own abilities, education, knowledge of Scripture, spiritual maturity, or any other qualifications might be in relation to those of her husband. The submission is not the husband’s to command but for the wife to willingly and lovingly offer. “Your own husbands” limits her submission to the one man God has placed over her, and also gives a balancing emphasis that he is hers as a personal intimate possession. She submits to the man she possesses as her own. Because the obedient, spiritual wife’s supreme submission is to the Lord, her attitude is that she lovingly submits as an act of obedience to the Lord who has given this command as His will for her, regardless of her husband’s personal worthiness or spiritual condition. Ephesians 5:33 = However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. The intimacy and sacredness of the love relationship between believing marriage partners is to be a visual expression of the love between Christ and His church.