1 Corinthians 7:1-24 - Concerning Christian Marriage

¹ But concerning those things about which you wrote to me: That it is good for a man not to receive a wife: ² but on account of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³ Let the husband give to the wife that which is due, and likewise the wife also to the husband. ⁴ The wife has not the authority over her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband has not the authority over his own body, but the wife. ⁵ Do not defraud one another, unless it may be with consent for a time, that you may give attention to prayer, and again come together, in order that Satan may not tempt you on account of your incontinency. ⁶ But I speak this according to knowledge, not according to commandment. ⁷ But I wish that all men were even as myself; but each one has his own gift from God, some one, and some another.

⁸ But I speak to the unmarried and the widows, that it is good for them that they may remain even as I: ⁹ but if they do not contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

¹⁰ But I proclaim to those who have married, not I, but the Lord, That a wife shall not depart from her husband ¹¹ (but if indeed she may depart, let her remain unmarried, or let her be reconciled unto her husband); and that the husband shall not send away the wife. ¹² But I say to the rest, not the Lord, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is willing to live with him, let him not send her away. ¹³ And if any wife has an unbelieving husband, and he is willing to live with her, let her not send away her husband. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified by the brother. Since then your children are unclean; but now they are holy. ¹⁵ But if the unbeliever departs, let him or her depart; the brother or the sister has not been enslaved in such things. God has called you in peace. ¹⁶ For what do you know, O wife, if you shall save your husband? And what do you know, O husband, if you shall save your wife?

¹⁷ If not as the Lord has imparted to each one, and as God has called each one, so let him or her walk. And thus I command in all the churches. ¹⁸ Is one called having been circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised: has one been called in uncircumcision? let him not get circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰ Let each one abide in the same calling in which he is called. ²¹ Have you been called being a slave? let it not be a care to you: but if indeed you are able to become free, use it in preference. ²² For the one having been called in the Lord, being a slave, is the Lord's freeman: likewise the one having been called, while free, is the slave of Christ. ²³ You have been bought with a price; be not the slaves of men. ²⁴ Let each one remain with the Lord, in the same calling in which he was called, brethren.