1. Now concerning the things of which ye wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2. Nevertheless, to avoid lewdness, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
3. Let the husband render to the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife to the husband.
4. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
5. Defraud ye not one the other, except with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan may not tempt you for your incontinence.
6. But I speak this by permission, and not as a commandment.
7. For I would that all men were as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.
8. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they remain even as I.
9. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
10. And to the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:
11. But if she shall depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
12. But to the rest I speak, not the Lord, if any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she is pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.