The 10 Most Impactful Bible Verses about a Good Wife

I have been married a grand ole’ total of 8 years. For some, that seems like a drop in the bucket, and others have decades on us. Has it been an easy journey? No. That’s why looking at these bible verses about a good wife can be so encouraging. Like many marriages, we have a few unique things that make our marriage hard. Let me list just two.

When I first met my husband I had never dated. Not even once. There was one time I met a guy for coffee and I always wondered if it was a date, but looking back I’m pretty sure it wasn’t, especially since he never called again.

So, Dan was my first date, my first-second date, my first kiss, my first everything. And let me tell you what, that is a difficult situation because I’m rather independent, struggle with relationships, and am quite stubborn.

During our first month of marriage, I will always remember Dan walking down a hill at our house as I sat on a lawnmower crying my eyes out. I was 100% completely overwhelmed by being in a relationship. My default is to run away from Dan, not to him.

Our second strike that makes our marriage unique in many ways is that my husband has a brain injury. It was the type of brain injury that left him with a part of his skull removed for months, loss of memory (to this day), large motor control on the right side of his body impacted, and ongoing good days and bad days.

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.

Proverbs 31:10-12

The Bible also describes a wife as rare and precious! Those two words are quite the verbs to live up to!

Dear wife, you are rare and precious. This does not come from outward adorning but from inner beauty. You should be precious to your husband, but you are most certainly precious to our Creator and God. The Bible stresses that a good wife is a gift to her husband, but she is also a rarity.

To find a woman who not only loves her husband well but also builds her home and strives to please God is a rarity indeed! Your own hands can work to please God and your husband.

You are more precious than jewels! Strive to be that rare and precious ruby. Do not let your beauty come from gold jewelry or outward appearance, but from within.

Proverbs 31:27 goes on to talk about the ‘bread of idleness’. This is another good reminder that we are not called to sit around and watch Netflix all day (although there is a time and place for all). We are to be productive with our time and have willing hands to do the work.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing

    and obtains favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 18:22

Being a Good Wife isn’t About Being Perfect

Being a perfect wife is not the goal. Being a wife that pleases our Lord is the goal. Does that mean we shouldn’t love our husband well or make him a priority? No. It just means that the overflow of pleasing God is all the good things for our husbands. You should strive to be a wife of imperishable beauty.

A beautiful chapter in scripture is Proverbs 18. It is a poetic chapter of scripture that talks about humility, fools, a man’s haughty, a crushed spirit, and the power of the tongue. In the midst of all the nuggets of truth and wisdom, we find that a wife is a good thing.

Woman, are you a good thing? Are you a good thing to your husband? Are you walking in a way that pleases the Lord and as a result brings your husband a good thing? In this culture, we so often focus on independence and a Christian version of feminism that still misses the biblical mark.

Being a good wife is not about being perfect, but we should be a ‘good thing’. Think about your marriage, are you a good thing to your husband? If you hesitate in this, that is okay, it means you are humble! Now, think about it again but practically. Are you a good wife?

House and wealth are inherited from fathers,

    but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

Proverbs 19:14

The dictionary defines prudent as “acting with or showing care and thought for the future.” A good wife will be thinking about the implications of her actions and the actions of those around her. She is carefully thinking through the future and analyzing what decisions will best suit her family.

The head of every man is the Lord, but the head of every woman is her husband. Sometimes being a prudent wife is knowing and living that simple truth out. It’s a hard truth, but one that will always be worth living out. Ask the holy spirit to guide you in this if you have a hard time submitting to this truth.

and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

Titus 2:4

What is the difference between a Proverbs 31 woman and a Titus 2 woman? It’s a fascinating study and one that I had never contemplated until I ran across this article. Simply put, as the Proverbs 31 older woman grows and matures, she will become a Titus 2 woman who is able to train, encourage, equip, mentor, and disciple other women around her. How did the Proverbs 31 woman become who she is? By being shown by younger women how to live a godly life.

Young wives still have the ability to minister to other women. Never discount your age!

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:22

This one is a hard one and it honestly gets the most flack from both the secular world and the Christian world. Just like Christ is the head of the church, the husband is the head of the wife. It’s almost as bad as the verse about the wife being the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7)!

Do we truly need to be submissive to be a good wife? Yes. But we need to remember that submissiveness is not the same as bondage. We love our children not out of bondage to them, but out of love. Likewise, we submit to our husbands not because of bondage, but as an outpour of our love and affection. Does that mean it’s easy? No. But then again loving our children sometimes isn’t that easy either!

A little phrase that often gets missed in this passage is the last part, “as to the Lord.” Being submissive is not something that should be foreign to us. We should be submissive to our Lord and God each day!

I do want to note something here. What if you don’t have a good husband? What if you are married to an alcoholic, abuser, or something else along those lines? Are we still called to submit? In short, yes, but it become more complicated. Seek the advice of a pastor and trusted friends.

to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Titus 2:5

We continue in the Titus 2 chapter with an imperative verse to understand. Turn your attention to the end of Titus 2:5 and read the last part, “that the word of God may not be reviled.” In the modern context, this would be a place where we would place a ‘mic drop.’ We do not do these things to please our husband, or even ourselves; we do these things so that the word of God will not be reviled!

Reviled definition: To assail with contemptuous or opprobrious language; address or speak of abusively.

Also, note that the wife is working at home. She is attending to the ways of her household. That does not necessarily mean that she does not have a job. If that was the case, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post! But it does mean that the ways of her household are her first priority

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

Proverbs 12:4

It saddens me that the feminist agenda has infiltrated my mind in such a way that I still need to talk my way through a verse like this. I remind myself that being a crown to my husband is not a demotion. It is an honor. To be so valued, beautiful, and loved that you are a crown to another human being should be a great honor.

Have you ever witnessed the damage that a quarrelsome wife can bring to a marriage? Once you have witnessed it, you will hopefully strive to never bring that into your marriage.

Do you want to be a virtuous woman? Start by being an excellent wife to your husband.

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

Genesis 2:24

It’s hard to understand the mystery of marriage in verses like this. A man is commanded to leave his father and mother and cleave or hold fast to his wife. Essentially this is a verse that the married couple is making a new family. They will go their own way.

Marriage is a beautiful reflection of Christ and the church, and Christ left his heavenly home to be on earth for a time. In the same way, a man leaves his family to be with his wife.

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

Hebrews 13:4

So often we skip right over the first part of this verse and ruminate over the ending of the marriage bed, but let’s head back to the beginning of the verse. Let marriage be held in honor among all. As we just read above, marriage is a mystery and a reflection of Christ and his church. It is not something to be taken lightly and should be held in honor.

By acknowledging that your own body is not your own, you will find many blessings as you give yourself over to your husband in this area.

Do not live in sexual immorality, you will find there is nothing to gain.

Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.

1 Timothy 3:11

We end our look at Bible verses about being a good wife with this admonition from 1 Timothy 3:11. It is a reminder to be dignified, sober-minded, and faithful. This chapter contains the requirements for an elder or overseer of a church, and verse 11 includes what their wife’s behavior should be. However, these are good characteristics to embody even if you are not an elder’s wife.

The Bible says that the elders’ conduct of their wives should be pure and dignified. We should strive for that even if we are not an elders wife!

Having a quiet spirit is not a bad thing, you will find that your quiet spirit will gain you a lot of traction in high-stress situations.