⁴ And He answered and said, “Have you not read ^(A)that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ‘^(B)For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and ^(C)the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate.”

⁸ He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to ^[a]divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you ^(A)abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that ^(B)each of you know how to ^[a]possess his own ^[b](C)vessel in sanctification and ^(D)honor, ⁵ not in ^[c](E)lustful passion, like the Gentiles who ^(F)do not know God; ⁶ and that no one violate the rights and ^(G)take advantage of his brother or sister ^(H)in the matter, because ^(I)the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also ^(J)told you previously and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For ^(K)God has not called us for ^[d](L)impurity, but in sanctification. ⁸ Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who ^(M)gives His Holy Spirit to you.