A Biblical and Theological Response to Domestic Violence

Psalm 55:4-8, 12-14, 20-21 CSB
My heart shudders within me; terrors of death sweep over me. ⁵ Fear and trembling grip me; horror has overwhelmed me. ⁶ I said, “If only I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest. ⁷ How far away I would flee; I would stay in the wilderness. Selah ⁸ I would hurry to my shelter from the raging wind and the storm.”  Now it is not an enemy who insults me— otherwise I could bear it; it is not a foe who rises up against me— otherwise I could hide from him. ¹³ But it is you, a man who is my peer, my companion and good friend! ¹⁴ We used to have close fellowship; we walked with the crowd into the house of God.  My friend acts violently against those at peace with him; he violates his covenant. ²¹ His buttery words are smooth, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, ⁴ that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵ not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. ⁶ This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NASB
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. ⁵ It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, ⁶ it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Genesis 6:13 NASB
Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

Psalm 11:5 NASB
The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and His soul hates one who loves violence.

Genesis 2:20-25
The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. ²² Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. ²⁴ This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. ²⁵ Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

Ephesians 5:25-31 CSB
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. ²⁷ He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, ³⁰ since we are members of his body. ³¹ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

Colossians 3:8 CSB
But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

Colossians 3:19 ESV
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

1 Peter 3:8-9 CSB
Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, ⁹ not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.

1 Peter 3:7 CSB
Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Philippians 2:3-4 CSB
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. ⁴ Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

Isaiah 50:6-7 NASB
I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pull out My beard; I did not hide My face from insults and spitting.  ⁷ For the Lord God helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have made My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.

1 Samuel 15:22-23
Samuel said, “Does the Lord have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, and to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. ²³ For rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as reprehensible as false religion and idolatry. Since you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

1 Samuel 15:24-26
Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have violated the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. ²⁵ Now then, please pardon my sin and return with me, so that I may worship the Lord.” ²⁶ But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

Hebrews 12:2
looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.