100 Bible Verses about Living Together Before Marriage

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 440 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 220 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 200 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 185 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 183 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV / 161 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Ephesians 5:5 ESV / 148 helpful votes

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 139 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Genesis 2:24-25 ESV / 131 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 128 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV / 123 helpful votes

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 122 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV / 118 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 ESV / 108 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. ...

John 4:16-18 ESV / 105 helpful votes

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

1 Corinthians 7:39 ESV / 104 helpful votes

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

Mark 7:21-23 ESV / 102 helpful votes

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 101 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 ESV / 98 helpful votes

Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV / 92 helpful votes

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 90 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 86 helpful votes

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV / 83 helpful votes

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV / 79 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 75 helpful votes

And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

1 John 1:9 ESV / 63 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 62 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

1 Corinthians 7:8-9 ESV / 60 helpful votes

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Corinthians 5:1 ESV / 57 helpful votes

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.

Acts 15:20 ESV / 53 helpful votes

But should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

1 Corinthians 10:8 ESV / 52 helpful votes

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

2 Corinthians 8:21 ESV / 51 helpful votes

For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man.

Proverbs 31:10 ESV / 46 helpful votes

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

Galatians 5:19 ESV / 45 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 44 helpful votes

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Psalm 119:9 ESV / 44 helpful votes

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 43 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Proverbs 18:22 ESV / 43 helpful votes

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Proverbs 12:4 ESV / 42 helpful votes

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.

Exodus 20:14 ESV / 42 helpful votes

“You shall not commit adultery.

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 41 helpful votes

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 40 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

John 4:1-54 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ...

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 39 helpful votes

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Jude 1:7 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Colossians 3:18-19 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

John 8:34 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 37 helpful votes

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Proverbs 14:12 ESV / 37 helpful votes

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Deuteronomy 24:5 ESV / 37 helpful votes

“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

2 Corinthians 12:21 ESV / 35 helpful votes

I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.

Ephesians 5:31-32 ESV / 34 helpful votes

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

John 16:1 ESV / 34 helpful votes

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

Proverbs 19:14 ESV / 34 helpful votes

House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

1 Corinthians 7:9 ESV / 32 helpful votes

But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Corinthians 7:38 ESV / 31 helpful votes

So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ...

Galatians 6:7-8 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 29 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Hebrews 13:4-7 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Genesis 2:22-24 ESV / 28 helpful votes

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 ESV / 27 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 26 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Luke 1:37 ESV / 26 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Matthew 16:24 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 24 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

Philippians 4:19 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Acts 15:28-29 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Matthew 22:30 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Ezekiel 16:8 ESV / 24 helpful votes

“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.

Acts 15:19-20 ESV / 23 helpful votes

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 23 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 6:32 ESV / 23 helpful votes

He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 22 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Exodus 21:10 ESV / 22 helpful votes

If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 21 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Ezekiel 16:32 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!

Song of Solomon 4:9 ESV / 21 helpful votes

You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

Revelation 22:14-15 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Romans 1:29 ESV / 20 helpful votes

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

John 10:10 ESV / 20 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Matthew 22:2 ESV / 20 helpful votes

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,

Proverbs 2:17 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

Romans 7:2-3 ESV / 19 helpful votes

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Proverbs 30:18-19 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.

Galatians 6:7-9 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Proverbs 20:6-7 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV / 16 helpful votes

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Matthew 19:3-9 ESV / 12 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ...

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

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