I CORINTHIANS 7:1-9
Now concerning the things
whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
But for fear of
fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own
husband.
Let the husband render
the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband.
The wife hath not power
of her own body, but the husband. And in
like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
Defraud not [alt: do not starve] one another, except, perhaps, by
consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return
together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency.
But I speak this by
indulgence, not by commandment.
For I would that all men
were even as myself: but every one hath his proper gift from God: one after
this manner and another after that.
But I say to the
unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they continue so, even as
I.
But if they do not
contain themselves, let them marry. For
it is better to marry than to burn.
7:25-28
Now concerning virgins, I
have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel, as one having obtained
mercy of the Lord, to be faithful.
I think therefore that
this is good for the present necessity, that it is good so for a man to be.
Art thou bound to a wife?
seek not to be loosed.
Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
But if thou take a wife,
thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin
marry, she hath not sinned; nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the
flesh. But I spare you.