³ It is God’s will^(A) that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;^(B)

⁷ For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.^{(A) 8} Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.^(B)

Adultery

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^{[a](A) 28} But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.^{(B) 29} If your right eye causes you to stumble,^(C) gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble,^(D) cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce

³¹ “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’^{[b](E) 32} But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.^(F)

²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed,^(A) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over^(A) in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.^{(B) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,^(C) and worshiped and served created things^(D) rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.^(E) Amen.^(F)

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over^(G) to shameful lusts.^(H) Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.^{(I) 27} In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.^(J)

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over^(K) to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,^{(L) 30} slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;^{(M) 31} they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love,^(N) no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death,^(O) they not only continue to do these very things but also approve^(P) of those who practice them.

Dealing With a Case of Incest

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.^{(A) 2} And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning^(B) and have put out of your fellowship^(C) the man who has been doing this?

Concerning Married Life

7 Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”^{(A) 2} But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.

⁹ But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry,^(A) for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

⁵ Put to death,^(A) therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:^(B) sexual immorality,^(C) impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,^(D) which is idolatry.^(E)