1

Now, as to the things in your letter to me: It is good for a man to have nothing to do with a woman.

2

But because of the desires of the flesh, let every man have his wife, and every woman her husband.

3

Let the husband give to the wife what is right and let the wife do the same to the husband.

4

The wife has not power over her body, but the husband and in the same way the husband has not power over his body, but the wife.

5

Do not keep back from one another what is right, but only for a short time, and by agreement, so that you may give yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan may not get the better of you through your loss of self-control.

6

But this I say as my opinion, and not as an order of the Lord.

7

It is my desire that all men might be even as I am. But every man has the power of his special way of life given him by God, one in this way and one in that.

8

But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is good for them to be even as I am.

9

But if they have not self-control let them get married for married life is better than the burning of desire.

10

But to the married I give orders, though not I but the Lord, that the wife may not go away from her husband

11

(Or if she goes away from him, let her keep unmarried, or be united to her husband again) and that the husband may not go away from his wife.

12

But to the rest I say, and not the Lord If a brother has a wife who is not a Christian, and it is her desire to go on living with him, let him not go away from her.

13

And if a woman has a husband who is not a Christian, and it is his desire to go on living with her, let her not go away from her husband.

14

For the husband who has not faith is made holy through his Christian wife, and the wife who is not a Christian is made holy through the brother: if not, your children would be unholy, but now are they holy.

15

But if the one who is not a Christian has a desire to go away, let it be so: the brother or the sister in such a position is not forced to do one thing or the other: but it is God's pleasure that we may be at peace with one another.

16

For how may you be certain, O wife, that you will not be the cause of salvation to your husband? or you, O husband, that you may not do the same for your wife?