1 Corinthians 7:1-9 ▼

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.

8 But I tell the unmarried, and women who are widows, that it is well for them to remain as I am.

9 If, however, they cannot maintain self-control, by all means let them marry; for marriage is better than the fever of passion.