ASLAN International Ministry Scripture Verses for
Abusive Relationships
Proverbs 22:24-25 ESV / 113 helpful votes
Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
Colossians 3:19 ESV / 86 helpful votes
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 83 helpful votes
But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
Proverbs 15:1-33 ESV / 79 helpful votes
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent. …
1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 62 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.
Proverbs 21:9 ESV / 56 helpful votes
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 50 helpful votes
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 48 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.
Luke 4:18-19 ESV / 48 helpful votes
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Titus 3:2 ESV / 44 helpful votes
To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 42 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. …
Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 42 helpful votes
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
1 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 40 helpful votes
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
Matthew 18:15-17 ESV / 38 helpful votes
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Titus 3:10-11 ESV / 33 helpful votes
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Isaiah 43:1-28 ESV / 30 helpful votes
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. …
Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 23 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.
Matthew 5:29 ESV / 23 helpful votes
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
Proverbs 16:25 ESV / 20 helpful votes
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 19 helpful votes
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Isaiah 41:10 ESV / 19 helpful votes
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Proverbs 20:22 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
Psalm 55:22 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
1 Corinthians 5:11 ESV / 17 helpful votes
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
Romans 15:13 ESV / 16 helpful votes
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
James 1:26 ESV / 15 helpful votes
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 ESV / 14 helpful votes
But test everything; hold fast what is good.
1 Corinthians 7:10-11 ESV / 14 helpful votes
To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
Matthew 5:31-32 ESV / 14 helpful votes
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 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.
James 3:10 ESV / 13 helpful votes
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Proverbs 19:11 ESV / 13 helpful votes
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Psalm 34:18 ESV / 13 helpful votes
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Titus 3:1 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
1 Corinthians 7:12-16 ESV / 12 helpful votes
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
Matthew 19:9 ESV / 12 helpful votes
And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Proverbs 21:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Ephesians 4:31 ESV / 11 helpful votes
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
1 Corinthians 14:1-40 ESV / 11 helpful votes
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. …
Psalm 140:12 ESV / 11 helpful votes
I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.
James 5:19-20 ESV / 10 helpful votes
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 10 helpful votes
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Romans 12:18 ESV / 10 helpful votes
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Matthew 18:15 ESV / 10 helpful votes
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
Malachi 2:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes
“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
Proverbs 10:6 ESV / 10 helpful votes
Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
Proverbs 1:1-33 ESV / 10 helpful votes
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, …
Psalm 37:3-6 ESV / 10 helpful votes
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
Psalm 37:3-4 ESV / 10 helpful votes
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 11:5 ESV / 10 helpful votes
The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
Job 19:25 ESV / 10 helpful votes
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
James 1:19-20 ESV / 9 helpful votes
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Colossians 3:12-13 ESV / 9 helpful votes
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 9 helpful votes
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
1 Corinthians 7:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
Matthew 19:3-9 ESV / 8 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?” …
Zephaniah 1:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes
On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.
Psalm 72:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes
From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
1 Peter 3:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Hebrews 10:24 ESV / 7 helpful votes
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Galatians 6:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 7 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; …
Matthew 5:32 ESV / 7 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.
Proverbs 10:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Proverbs 18:21 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Psalm 9:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes
The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
1 John 3:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
James 4:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 3:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
James 3:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes
For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
Hebrews 13:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
2 Thessalonians 3:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Galatians 6:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ESV / 5 helpful votes
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Luke 16:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
Proverbs 13:20 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Psalm 146:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
2 Samuel 22:28 ESV / 5 helpful votes
You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
1 John 1:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 Peter 3:1-6 ESV / 4 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, …
James 3:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:3-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes
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.
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 7:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes
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.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 4 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.
Exodus 20:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Revelation 1:1 ESV / 3 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,
2 Peter 1:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes
And godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
Hebrews 12:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
2 Thessalonians 3:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
1 Peter 3:1 ESV / 2 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,
Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
1 Corinthians 6:1-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Romans 15:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
