Principles for Marriage
1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote:
1"It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman."
2
But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
3
2The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
4
For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5
3Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again,
4so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6
Now as a concession,
5not a command, I say this.
7
6I wish that all were
7as I myself am. But
8each has his own gift from God,
9one of one kind and one of another.
8
To the unmarried and the widows I say that
10it is good for them to remain single
11as I am.
9
But if they cannot exercise self-control,
12they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
10
To the married
13I give this charge (not I, but the Lord):
14the wife should not separate from her husband