When the Pharisees afterward questioned Him concerning the lawfulness of divorce, Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution as ordained at creation. "Because of the hardness of your hearts," He said, Moses "suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so." Matthew 19:8. He referred them to the blessed days of Eden, when God pronounced all things "very good." Then marriage and the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions for the glory of God in the benefit of humanity. Then, as the Creator joined the hands of the holy pair in wedlock, saying, A man shall "leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one" (Genesis 2:24), He enunciated the 64 law of marriage for all the children of Adam to the close of time. That which the Eternal Father Himself had pronounced good was the law of highest blessing and development for man.

Idet apostelen Paulus længere nede i tiden skriver til de kristne i Efesus, udtaler han, at Herren har indsat manden til at være kvindens hoved, for at han skal være hendes beskytter, det bånd, der binder familiens medlemmer sammen, ligesom Kristus er menighedens hoved og det åndelige legemes frelser. Derfor siger han: »Ja, ligesom kirken underordner sig under Kristus, skal også hustruerne underordne sig under deres mænd i alt. I mænd! elsk jeres hustruer, ligesom Kristus el skede kirken og gav sig selv hen for den, for at han kunne hellige den, idet han rensede den i vandbadet ved ordet, for at han således kunne fremstille kirken for sit åsyn som herlig, uden plet eller rynke eller andet sådant, nej den skulle være hellig og dadelfri. På samme måde bør mændene elske deres hustruer.« (Ef. 5,24-28).