John Calvin Commentary Hebrews 13:4

"[Let] marriage [be] had in honor among all, and [let] the bed [be] undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." — Hebrews 13:4 (ASV)

Marriage is honorable in all, etc. Some think this is an exhortation to married people to conduct themselves modestly and in a becoming manner, so that the husband should live with his wife temperately and chastely, and not defile the conjugal bed by unbecoming wantonness. Thus, a verb is to be understood in the sense of exhorting, “Let marriage be honorable.” And yet the indicative is would not be unsuitable; for when we hear that marriage is honorable, it should immediately come to our minds that we are to conduct ourselves in it honorably and becomingly.

Others take the sentence by way of concession in this way: “Though marriage is honorable, it is still unlawful to commit fornication.” But this sense, as all must see, is rigid. I am inclined to think that the Apostle sets marriage here in opposition to fornication as a remedy for that evil. The context plainly shows that this was his meaning, for before he threatens that the Lord would punish fornicators, he first states what is the true way of escape, which is to live honorably in a state of marriage.

Let this then be the main point: that fornication will not go unpunished, for God will take vengeance on it. And undoubtedly, as God has blessed the union of man and wife, instituted by Himself, it follows that every other union different from this is condemned and accursed by Him.

He therefore denounces punishment not only on adulterers but also on fornicators, for both depart from the holy institution of God. Indeed, they violate and subvert it by promiscuous intercourse, since there is only one legitimate union, sanctioned by the authority and approval of God. But since promiscuous and wandering lusts cannot be restrained without the remedy of marriage, the Apostle therefore commends it by calling it “honorable.”

What he adds, and the bed undefiled, has been stated, it seems to me, for this purpose: that married people might know that not everything is lawful for them, but that the use of the legitimate bed should be moderate, so that nothing contrary to modesty and chastity is allowed.

By saying in all men, I understand him to mean that there is no order of men prohibited from marriage; for what God has allowed to mankind universally is fitting for all without exception—I mean all who are fit for marriage and feel the need for it.

It was indeed necessary for this subject to have been distinctly and expressly stated in order to counter a superstition, the seeds of which Satan was probably even then secretly sowing—namely, that marriage is a profane thing, or at least far removed from Christian perfection. For those seducing spirits, forbidding marriage, who had been foretold by Paul, soon appeared.

So that no one then might foolishly imagine that marriage is only permitted to the people in general, but that those who are eminent in the Church ought to abstain from it, the Apostle takes away every exception. He does not teach us that it is conceded as an indulgence, as Jerome sophistically says, but that it is honorable.

It is very strange indeed that those who introduced the prohibition of marriage into the world were not terrified by this very explicit declaration. But it was necessary then to give free rein to Satan, in order to punish the ingratitude of those who refused to hear God.