¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”^(A)

²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep;^(A) and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs^[a] and then closed up the place with flesh. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib^[b](B) he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

²³ The man said,

²⁴ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united^(F) to his wife, and they become one flesh.^(G)

⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’^{[a](A) 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’^[b]?^{(B) 6} So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁵ “It was because your hearts were hard^(A) that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. ⁶ “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’^{[a](B) 7} ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,^{[b] 8} and the two will become one flesh.’^[c](C) So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all,^(A) and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.^(B)

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. ³ The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife,^(B) and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. ⁵ Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time,^(C) so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan^(D) will not tempt you^(E) because of your lack of self-control. ⁶ I say this as a concession, not as a command.^{(F) 7} I wish that all of you were as I am.^(G) But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.^(H)

⁸ Now to the unmarried^[a] and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.^(I)

¹² For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Unity and Diversity in the Body

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body,^(A) so it is with Christ.^{(B) 13} For we were all baptized^(C) by^[a] one Spirit^(D) so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free^(E)—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.^(F)