²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over^(A) to shameful lusts.^(B) Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.^{(C) 27} In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.^(D)

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?^(A) Do not be deceived:^(B) Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers^(C) nor men who have sex with men^[a](D)

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality.^(A) All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.^(B)

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,^(A) 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,^(B) so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan^(C) will not tempt you^(D) because of your lack of self-control. ⁶ I say this as a concession, not as a command.^{(E) 7} I wish that all of you were as I am.^(F) But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.^(G)

⁸ Now to the unmarried^[a] and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.^{(H) 9} But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry,^(I) for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins^(A) and purify us from all unrighteousness.^(B)

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

¹⁹ Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals^(B) and all the birds in the sky.^(C) He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called^(D) each living creature,^(E) that was its name. ²⁰ So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam^[a] no suitable helper^(F) was found. ²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep;^(G) and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs^[b] and then closed up the place with flesh. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib^[c](H) 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^(L) to his wife, and they become one flesh.^(M)

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.”