Letters to the Churches

and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through his power.

Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid.

Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh.

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own;

for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

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

Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife.

Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency.

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

Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.

But I say to the unmarried and to widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

But unto the married I give charge, yea not I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband

(but should she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband); and that the husband leave not his wife.

But to the rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave her.

And the woman that hath an unbelieving husband, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

Yet if the unbelieving departeth, let him depart: the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us in peace.

For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O husband, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

Only, as the Lord hath distributed to each man, as God hath called each, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all the churches.

Was any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Hath any been called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.