1. Now in response to the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have relations with a woman.”
2. But because sexual immorality is so common, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.
3. A husband should fulfill his marital responsibility to his wife, and likewise a wife to her husband.
4. A wife does not have the right over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband does not have the right over his own body, but his wife does.
5. Do not deprive one another sexually — except when you agree for a time, to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again; otherwise, Satan may tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6. I say the following as a concession, not as a command.
7. I wish that all people were just like me. But each has his own gift from God, one person in this way and another in that way.
8. I say to the unmarried and to widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am.
9. But if they do not have self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
10. I command the married — not I, but the Lord — a wife is not to leave her husband.
11. But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband — and a husband is not to leave his wife.
12. But I (not the Lord) say to the rest: If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not leave her.