1 Corinthians 7:1–9

Concerning Marriage and Singleness

¹Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is ^agood for a man not to touch a woman.

²But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

³The husband must ¹fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

⁴The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

^5aStop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and ¹come together again so that ^bSatan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

⁶But this I say as a concession, ^anot as a command.

⁷¹Yet I wish that all men were ^aeven as I myself am. However, ^beach man has his own gift from God, one this way, and another that.

⁸But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is ^agood for them if they remain ^beven as I.

⁹But if they do not have self-control, ^alet them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.