Letters to the Churches

and God both the Lord did raise, and us will raise up through His power.

Have ye not known that your bodies are members of Christ? having taken, then, the members of the Christ, shall I make them members of an harlot? let it be not!

have ye not known that he who is joined to the harlot is one body? `for they shall be--saith He--the two for one flesh.'

And he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit;

flee the whoredom; every sin--whatever a man may commit--is without the body, and he who is committing whoredom, against his own body doth sin.

Have ye not known that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own,

for ye were bought with a price; glorify, then, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

And concerning the things of which ye wrote to me: good it is for a man not to touch a woman,

and because of the whoredom let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her proper husband;

to the wife let the husband the due benevolence render, and in like manner also the wife to the husband;

the wife over her own body hath not authority, but the husband; and, in like manner also, the husband over his own body hath not authority, but the wife.

Defraud not one another, except by consent for a time, that ye may be free for fasting and prayer, and again may come together, that the Adversary may not tempt you because of your incontinence;

and this I say by way of concurrence--not of command,

for I wish all men to be even as I myself am ; but each his own gift hath of God, one indeed thus, and one thus.

And I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is good for them if they may remain even as I am ;

and if they have not continence--let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn;

and to the married I announce--not I, but the Lord--let not a wife separate from a husband:

but and if she may separate, let her remain unmarried, or to the husband let her be reconciled, and let not a husband send away a wife.

And to the rest I speak--not the Lord--if any brother hath a wife unbelieving, and she is pleased to dwell with him, let him not send her away;

and a woman who hath a husband unbelieving, and he is pleased to dwell with her, let her not send him away;

for the unbelieving husband hath been sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife hath been sanctified in the husband; otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

And, if the unbelieving doth separate himself--let him separate himself: the brother or the sister is not under servitude in such cases , and in peace hath God called us;

for what, hast thou known, O wife, whether the husband thou shalt save? or what, hast thou known, O husband, whether the wife thou shalt save?

if not, as God did distribute to each, as the Lord hath called each--so let him walk; and thus in all the assemblies do I direct:

being circumcised--was any one called? let him not become uncircumcised; in uncircumcision was any one called? let him not be circumcised;