²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, ^(B)“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; ^(A)I will make him a helper fit for^[a] him.”

²¹ So the Lord God caused a ^(A)deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made^[a] into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

^24 (D)Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

⁴ He answered, ^(A)“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ^(B)‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and ^(C)the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ^(D)What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your ^(A)hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But ^(B)from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them ^(C)male and female.’ ^7 (D)‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,^{[a] 8} and ^(E)the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

^4 (A)Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge ^(B)the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Principles for Marriage

7 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ^(A)“It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” ² But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. ^3 (B)The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴ For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. ^5 (C)Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, ^(D)so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

⁶ Now as a concession, ^(E)not a command, I say this.^{[a] 7 (F)}I wish that all were ^(G)as I myself am. But ^(H)each has his own gift from God, ^(I)one of one kind and one of another.

⁸ To the unmarried and the widows I say that ^(J)it is good for them to remain single, ^(K)as I am.

¹² For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs ^(A)for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

One Body with Many Members

¹² For just as ^(A)the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, ^(B)so it is with Christ. ¹³ For ^(C)in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—^(D)Jews or Greeks, slaves^[a] or free—and ^(E)all were made to drink of one Spirit.