7

But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.

And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:

But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

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.

Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.