Morality in Sexual Matters

¹² Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not allow anything to control me. ¹³ Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will make them both unnecessary. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ God raised the Lord, and by his power he will also raise us.

¹⁵ You know that your bodies belong to the Messiah,^[a] don’t you? Should I take what belongs to the Messiah^[b] and unite them with a prostitute? Certainly not! ¹⁶ You know that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her, don’t you? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”^{[c] 17} But the person who unites himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Keep on running away from sexual immorality. Any other^[d] sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the person who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹ You know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, don’t you? You do not belong to yourselves, ²⁰ because you were bought for a price. Therefore, glorify God with your bodies.