Marriage

1Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

2For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

3So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.

5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.

1Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

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

3Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

4The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife.

5Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment.

7Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.

8But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am.

9But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn.

10But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband

11(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

12But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.

13The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.

14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

15Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.

16For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

17Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.

27Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.

28But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.

29But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

30and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess;

31and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

32But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

33but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

34There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.

35This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

36But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry.

37But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own heart, to keep his own virgin, does well.

38So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

39A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

40But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

23For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.

24But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;

26that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,

27that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.

28Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.

29For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly;

30because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

31“For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.”

32This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly.

33Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.