God’s Word on Preparing for Marriage

Author: Keith Sorbo

Consider what God’s word says as you consider and prepare to get married.

Understand what love is

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Who should get married?

I Corinthians 7:8-9 NIV
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But
if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with
passion.

Marriage is a union and a covenant

Genesis 2:24 ESV
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

A wife is a gift from God

Proverbs 18:22 ESV
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 19:14 ESV
House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

Prepare now for your future family

Proverbs 24:27, New Living Translation
Develop your business first before building your house.

1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Prepare your heart and spirit

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Choose wisely

Proverbs 22:24
Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go…

Proverbs 24:30-34
I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; and there it was, all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest; so shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.

Prov. 31:10, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.” Verse 30, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”

Luke 14:28-30
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.'”

2 Corinthians 6:14-15
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?

Ask for help in choosing a mate

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 11:14
Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.