1 Corinthians 7:1-16

Tree of Life Version

Counsel About Marriage

7 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. ² But because of much immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³ Let the husband fulfill his obligation to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. ⁴ The wife does not have the rights to her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband does not have the rights to his own body, but the wife. ⁵ Do not deprive one another—except by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.^[a] Then come together again, so that satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶ But this I say as a concession, not as a command. ⁷ Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this way and another that.

⁸ But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them to remain as I am. ⁹ But if they do not have self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with desire.

¹⁰ But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord^[b]—a wife is not to be separated from her husband ¹¹ (but if she gets separated, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband is not to divorce his wife.

¹² But to the rest I say—I, not the Lord—if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she agrees to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³ And if any woman has a husband who is not a believer, and he agrees to live with her, she must not divorce him. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is made holy through the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband.^[c] Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵ But if the unbeliever separates, let him be separated. The brother or the sister is not bound in such cases, but God has called you to shalom. ¹⁶ For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?