1
I now deal with the subjects mentioned in your letter. It is well for a man to abstain altogether from marriage.
2
But because there is so much fornication every man should have a wife of his own, and every woman should have a husband.
3
Let a man pay his wife her due, and let a woman also pay her husband his.
4
A married woman is not mistress of her own person: her husband has certain rights. In the same way a married man is not master of his own person: his wife has certain rights.
5
Do not refuse one another, unless perhaps it is just for a time and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and may then associate again; lest the Adversary begin to tempt you because of your deficiency in self-control.
6
Thus much in the way of concession, not of command.
7
Yet I would that everybody lived as I do; but each of us has his own special gift from God--one in one direction and one in another.