Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
. . .
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
. . .
Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is more delightful than wine.
The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens adore you.
Take me away with you—let us hurry! May the king bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. It is only right that they adore you.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!
. . .
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
However, if someone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his betrothed, and if she is beyond her youth and they ought to marry, let him do as he wishes; he is not sinning; they should get married.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;
Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.
But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
How fair and pleasant you are, O love, with your delights!
Your stature is like a palm tree; your breasts are clusters of fruit.
I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples,
and your mouth like the finest wine. May it flow smoothly to my beloved, gliding gently over lips and teeth.
I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.
. . .
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,
who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.
John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne,
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
. . .
Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Breathe on my garden and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choicest fruits.
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
There are three things too wonderful for me, four that I cannot understand:
the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship at sea, and the way of a man with a maiden.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints—
the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel
. . .
and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,
but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
. . .
In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.