Unlawful Sexual Relations

18 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(A)I am the Lord your God. ^3 (B)You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and ^(C)you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. ^4 (D)You shall follow my rules^[a] and keep my statutes and walk in them. ^(E)I am the Lord your God. ^5 (F)You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; ^(G)if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

⁶ “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. ^7 (H)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^8 (I)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. ^9 (J)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. ¹⁰ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. ¹¹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, brought up in your father's family, since she is your sister. ¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is your father's relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's relative. ¹⁴ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ^15 (K)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (L)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness. ¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity. ¹⁸ And you shall not take a woman as a ^(M)rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness ^(N)while her sister is still alive.

^19 (O)“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. ^20 (P)And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your children to ^(Q)offer them^[b] to ^(R)Molech, and so ^(S)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. ^22 (T)You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. ^23 (U)And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is ^(V)perversion.

^24 (W)“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, ^(X)for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, ²⁵ and the ^(Y)land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land ^(Z)vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But ^(AA)you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the ^(AB)native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. ^30 (AC)So keep my charge never to practice ^(AD)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(AE)I am the Lord your God.”

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

5 It is actually reported that there is ^(A)sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, ^(B)for a man has his father's wife. ² And ^(C)you are arrogant! Ought you ^(D)not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

³ For though ^(E)absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. ⁴ When you are assembled ^(F)in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ you are ^(G)to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so ^(H)that his spirit may be saved ^(I)in the day of the Lord.^[a]

^6 (J)Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that ^(K)a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Let us therefore celebrate the festival, ^(L)not with the old leaven, ^(M)the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter ^(N)not to associate with sexually immoral people— ^10 (O)not at all meaning ^(P)the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, ^(Q)since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone ^(R)who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging ^(S)outsiders? ^(T)Is it not those inside the church^[b] whom you are to judge? ¹³ God judges^[c] those outside. ^(U)“Purge the evil person from among you.”

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous^[a] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: ^(A)neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,^{[b] 10} nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And ^(B)such were some of you. But ^(C)you were washed, ^(D)you were sanctified, ^(E)you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

³ For this is the will of God, ^(A)your sanctification:^{[a] (B)}that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own ^(C)body^[b] in holiness and ^(D)honor, ⁵ not in ^(E)the passion of lust ^(F)like the Gentiles ^(G)who do not know God; ⁶ that no one transgress and ^(H)wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is ^(I)an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For ^(J)God has not called us for ^(K)impurity, but in holiness.