In this article, we will look at what it means to be a good wife according to the Bible.
The Bible is an ancient book that contains many different types of literature, including prophecy, poetry, and letters. It also contains what some call “the law”—the first five books of the Bible known as the Pentateuch or Torah. These laws were given to Israel by God through Moses. But how do these laws apply to you today?
How To Be A Good Wife According To The Bible
Proverbs 31:10-31 ESV / 1,244 helpful votes
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. …
Proverbs 18:22 ESV / 1,053 helpful votes
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.
Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 981 helpful votes
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
1 Peter 3:1-6 ESV / 900 helpful votes
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, …
Proverbs 12:4 ESV / 821 helpful votes
An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 772 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.
1 Corinthians 7:2-5 ESV / 762 helpful votes
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 Peter 3:1 ESV / 759 helpful votes
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,
1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 649 helpful votes
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
A Good Wife Is A Blessing From The Lord
Proverbs 14:1 ESV / 644 helpful votes
The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.
Proverbs 19:14 ESV / 634 helpful votes
House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 626 helpful votes
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Colossians 3:18 ESV / 623 helpful votes
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 596 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.
Ephesians 5:22-6:9 ESV / 563 helpful votes
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, …
Proverbs 31:11-12 ESV / 521 helpful votes
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 470 helpful votes
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Titus 2:5 ESV / 467 helpful votes
To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
James 1:19 ESV / 445 helpful votes
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
Titus 2:1-15 ESV / 445 helpful votes
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. …
Proverbs 31:10 ESV / 435 helpful votes
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
1 Peter 3:5 ESV / 425 helpful votes
For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,
1 Timothy 2:11-14 ESV / 391 helpful votes
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Genesis 2:24 ESV / 384 helpful votes
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Ephesians 5:22-24 ESV / 368 helpful votes
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Titus 2:3-5 ESV / 365 helpful votes
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 365 helpful votes
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; …
Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV / 357 helpful votes
The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. …
1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 355 helpful votes
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Philippians 2:3 ESV / 340 helpful votes
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Genesis 2:18 ESV / 330 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.”
Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 329 helpful votes
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1 Peter 3:4 ESV / 327 helpful votes
But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
Proverbs 21:9 ESV / 315 helpful votes
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
Proverbs 31:12 ESV / 314 helpful votes
She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 313 helpful votes
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 305 helpful votes
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 301 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. …
1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 277 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. …
Romans 12:21 ESV / 270 helpful votes
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
1 Corinthians 11:9 ESV / 261 helpful votes
Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
Bible Study on Being A Good Wife
Ephesians 5:24 ESV / 256 helpful votes
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
1 Timothy 3:11 ESV / 253 helpful votes
Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.
Philippians 4:13 ESV / 246 helpful votes
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Proverbs 25:24 ESV / 243 helpful votes
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
Proverbs 21:19 ESV / 236 helpful votes
It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.
1 Timothy 2:11 ESV / 230 helpful votes
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
Proverbs 31:11 ESV / 226 helpful votes
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
1 Peter 3:3 ESV / 224 helpful votes
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—
1 Corinthians 11:8-9 ESV / 224 helpful votes
For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
Galatians 3:28 ESV / 223 helpful votes
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Revelation 1:1 ESV / 217 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 31:30 ESV / 216 helpful votes
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Matthew 5:32 ESV / 214 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.
Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 210 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.”
Ephesians 4:2-3 ESV / 209 helpful votes
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 207 helpful votes
But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
Genesis 3:16 ESV / 207 helpful votes
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
1 Timothy 5:14 ESV / 206 helpful votes
So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
1 Peter 3:2 ESV / 204 helpful votes
When they see your respectful and pure conduct.
Colossians 3:19 ESV / 202 helpful votes
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
Ephesians 5:28 ESV / 200 helpful votes
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Proverbs 31:26 ESV / 200 helpful votes
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 199 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.”
Ephesians 5:23 ESV / 198 helpful votes
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV / 194 helpful votes
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Titus 2:4 ESV / 187 helpful votes
And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
Ephesians 5:31 ESV / 187 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
