1 Corinthians 7:4

4 Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out.

1 Corinthians 7:4 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 7:4

The wife hath not power of her own body
To refrain the use of it from her husband; or to prostitute it to another man:

but the husband;
he has the sole power over it, and may require when he pleases the use of it:

and likewise also the husband has not power over his own body:
to withhold due benevolence, or the conjugal debt from his wife; or abuse it by self-pollution, fornication, adultery, sodomy, or any acts of uncleanness: but the wife; she only has a power over it, a right to it, and may claim the use of it: this power over each other's bodies is not such, as that they may, by consent, either the husband allow the wife, or the wife the husband, to lie with another.

1 Corinthians 7:4 In-Context

2 Certainly - but only within a certain context. It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder.
3 The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality - the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband.
4 Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out.
5 Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it's for the purposes of prayer and fasting - but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it.
6 I'm not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence - only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.