Bible Verses for Relationships & Friendship
World English Bible
Human beings are wired for connection — "it is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). The Bible has profound things to say about friendship, community, and how we relate to one another. Proverbs 17:17 says "a friend loves at all times," and John 15:13 describes the highest form of love as laying down one's life for a friend.
These Bible verses on relationships speak to friendships, family bonds, and the qualities that make relationships thrive — loyalty, honesty, forgiveness, and love. They are especially for those seeking to build better relationships or navigate difficult ones.
“Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud,”
“doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;”
“bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
“doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;”
“Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding.”
“Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.”
“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
“But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.”
“Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.”
“(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.”
“But to the married I command--not I, but the Lord--that the wife not leave her husband”
“For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.”
“The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.”
“Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.”
“But to the rest I--not the Lord--say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.”
“But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am.”
“A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whoever she desires, only in the Lord.”
“Don't deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn't tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
“For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?”
“But if they don't have self-control, let them marry. For it's better to marry than to burn.”
“Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.”
“Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
“Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.”
“But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;”
“There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world--how she may please her husband.”
“The wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife.”
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.”
“but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.”
“This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.”