Mutual Care and Distinct Gifts

1Concerning the matters you wrote about: 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.

3The husband must give to his wife her marital duty, and likewise the wife to her husband.

4The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

5Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by mutual agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6But I say this as a concession, not as a command.

7But I want all men to be as I myself am. Yet each has his own gift from God, one in this way and another in that way.

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

9But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.