Journey Through God's Word

¹⁸The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

¹⁹Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

²⁰So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

²¹So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.

²²Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

²³The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

²⁴That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

²⁵Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

²²Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

²⁸In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

²⁹After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—

³⁰for we are members of his body.

³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

³²This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

¹Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,

²when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.

⁴Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

⁵For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands,

⁶like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

⁷Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

⁸Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

⁹Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

¹⁰For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.

¹¹They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”