I Corinthians 7-8

I Corinthians 7

¹But concerning the things of which ye have written to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman;

²but on account of fornications, let each have his own wife, and each woman have her own husband.

³Let the husband render her due to the wife, and in like manner the wife to the husband.

⁴The wife has not authority over her own body, but the husband: in like manner also the husband has not authority over his own body, but the wife.

⁵Defraud not one another, unless, it may be, by consent for a time, that ye may devote yourselves to prayer, and again be together, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency.

⁶But this I say, as consenting to, not as commanding it.

⁷Now I wish all men to be even as myself: but every one has his own gift of God: one man thus, and another thus.

⁸But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is good for them that they remain even as I.

⁹But if they have not control over themselves, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.

¹⁰But to the married I enjoin, not *I*, but the Lord, Let not wife be separated from husband;

¹¹(but if also she shall have been separated, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband;) and let not husband leave wife.

¹²But as to the rest, *I* say, not the Lord, If any brother have an unbelieving wife, and *she* consent to dwell with him, let him not leave her.

¹³And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother; since otherwise indeed your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

¹⁵But if the unbeliever go away, let them go away; a brother or a sister is not bound in such cases, but God has called us in peace.

¹⁶For what knowest thou, O wife, if thou shalt save thy husband? or what knowest thou, O husband, if thou shalt save thy wife?

¹⁷However, as the Lord has divided to each, as God has called each, so let him walk; and thus I ordain in all the assemblies.

¹⁸Has any one been called circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised: has any one been called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.

¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but keeping God's commandments.

²⁰Let each abide in that calling in which he has been called.

²¹Hast thou been called being a bondman, let it not concern thee; but and if thou canst become free, use it rather.

²²For the bondman that is called in the Lord is the Lord's freedman; in like manner also the freeman being called is Christ's bondman.

²³Ye have been bought with a price; do not be the bondmen of men.

²⁴Let each, wherein he is called, brethren, therein abide with God.

²⁵But concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give my opinion, as having received mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

²⁶I think then that this is good, on account of the present necessity, that it is good for a man to remain so as he is.

²⁷Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou free from a wife? do not seek a wife.

²⁸But if thou shouldest also marry, thou hast not sinned; and if the virgin marry, they have not sinned: but such shall have tribulation in the flesh; but I spare you.

²⁹But this I say, brethren, the time is straitened. For the rest, that they who have wives, be as not having any:

³⁰and they that weep, as not weeping; and they that rejoice, as not rejoicing; and they that buy, as not possessing;

³¹and they that use the world, as not disposing of it as their own; for the fashion of this world passes.

³²But I wish you to be without care. The unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he shall please the Lord;

³³but he that has married cares for the things of the world, how he shall please his wife.

³⁴There is a difference between the wife and the virgin. The unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but she that has married cares for the things of the world, how she shall please her husband.

³⁵But I say this for your own profit; not that I may set a snare before you, but for what is seemly, and waiting on the Lord without distraction.

³⁶But if any one think that he behaves unseemly to his virginity, if he be beyond the flower of his age, and so it must be, let him do what he will, he does not sin: let them marry.

³⁷But he who stands firm in his heart, having no need, but has authority over his own will, and has judged this in his heart to keep his own virginity, he does well.

³⁸So that he that marries himself does well; and he that does not marry does better.

³⁹A wife is bound for whatever time her husband lives; but if the husband be fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord.

⁴⁰But she is happier if she so remain, according to my judgment; but I think that *I* also have God's Spirit.

I Corinthians 8

¹But concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know, (for we all have knowledge: knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

²If any one think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it.

³But if any one love God, *he* is known of him):

⁴-- concerning then the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God save one.

⁵For and if indeed there are those called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, (as there are gods many, and lords many,)

⁶yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things, and *we* for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and *we* by him.

⁷But knowledge is not in all: but some, with conscience of the idol, until now eat as of a thing sacrificed to idols; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

⁸But meat does not commend us to God; neither if we should not eat do we come short; nor if we should eat have we an advantage.

⁹But see lest anywise this your right to eat itself be a stumbling-block to the weak.

¹⁰For if any one see thee, who hast knowledge, sitting at table in an idol-house, shall not his conscience, he being weak, be emboldened to eat the things sacrificed to the idol?

¹¹and the weak one, the brother for whose sake Christ died, will perish through thy knowledge.

¹²Now, thus sinning against the brethren, and wounding their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

¹³Wherefore if meat be a fall-trap to my brother, I will eat no flesh for ever, that I may not be a fall-trap to my brother.