PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS (Selected Passages) From: (in the public domain)

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1 PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS (Selected Passages) From: (in the public domain) 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father s wife. 5:2 You are puffed up, and didn t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. 5:3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:5 are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? 5:7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 5:9 I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; 5:10 yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. 5:11 But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don t even eat with such a person. 5:12 For what have I to do with also judging those who are outside? Don t you judge those who are within? 5:13 But those who are outside, God judges. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves. 6:9 don t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 6:10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. 6:11 Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God. 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything. 6:13 Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods, but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 6:14 Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. 6:15 Don t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 6:16 Or don t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, The two, says he, will become one flesh. * 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 6:18 Flee sexual immorality! Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 6:19 Or don t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, 6:20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God s. 7:1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. 7:2 But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 7:3 Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 7:4 The wife doesn t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn t have authority over his own body, but the wife. 7:5 Don t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn t tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 7:6 But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. 7:7 Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind. 7:8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. 7:9 But if they don t have self-control, let them marry. For it s better to marry than to burn. 7:10 But to the married I command not I, but the

2 Lord that the wife not leave her husband 7:11 (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife. 2 7:12 But to the rest I not the Lord say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. 7:13 The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 7:15 Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace. 7:16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 7:17 Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies. 7:18 Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 7:20 Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called. 7:21 Were you called being a bondservant? Don t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it. 7:22 For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ s bondservant. 7:23 You were bought with a price. Don t become bondservants of men. 7:24 Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God. 7:25 Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy. 7:26 I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is. 7:27 Are you bound to a wife? Don t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don t seek a wife. 7:28 But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you. 7:29 But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none; 7:30 and those who weep, as though they didn t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn t possess; 7:31 and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away. 7:32 But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; 7:33 but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. 7:34 There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world how she may please her husband. 7:35 This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction. 7:36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn t sin. Let them marry. 7:37 But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own heart, to keep his own virgin, does well. 7:38 So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn t give her in marriage does better. 7:39 A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord. 7:40 But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God s Spirit. BONUS PASSAGES ON SEX AND MARRIAGE IN THE BIBLE: HEBREW BIBLE/OLD TESTAMENT (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE translations): Genesis 1:22: [Be Fruitful and Multiply:] God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 1 1 See also: Genesis 1:28, 8:17, 9:1, 9:7, 17:20, 28:3, 35:11, Leviticus 26:9, Jeremiah 23:3, and Ezekiel 36:11.

3 3 Genesis 38:8-10: 8 [Masturbation:] Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother s wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother. 9 Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. 10 But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord; so He took his life also. Exodus 20:14, 17: [From the Ten Commandments/Decalogue:] [7 th Commandment: Adultery:] 14 You shall not commit adultery.. [10 th Commandment: No Coveting Neighbor s Wife:] 17 You shall not covet your neighbor s house. You shall not covet your neighbor s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Leviticus 12:1-5: 1 [Sex after birth:] The Lord said to Moses, 2 Say to the Israelites: A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. 3 On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. 4 Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. 5 If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding. Leviticus 18:6-20, 22-24, 29-30: 6 [Incest:] No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord. 7 Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. 8 Do not have sexual relations with your father s wife; that would dishonor your father. 9 Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father s daughter or your mother s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. 10 Do not have sexual relations with your son s daughter or your daughter s daughter; that would dishonor you. 11 Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. 12 Do not have sexual relations with your father s sister; she is your father s close relative. 13 Do not have sexual relations with your mother s sister, because she is your mother s close relative. 14 Do not dishonor your father s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt. 15 Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son s wife; do not have relations with her. 16 Do not have sexual relations with your brother s wife; that would dishonor your brother. 17 Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son s daughter or her daughter s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness. [Adultery:] 18 Do not take your wife s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living. [Sex during period:] 19 Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period. 2 [Adultery:] 20 Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor s wife and defile yourself with her.. [Homosexual sex:] 22 Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. [Bestiality:] 23 Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. 24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.. 29 Everyone who does any of these detestable things such persons must be cut off from their people. 30 Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:20: [Penalty for Adultery with a slave:] Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free. 2 See also Leviticus 15:24.

4 4 Leviticus 20:10-21: 10 [Adultery punishment:] 10 If a man commits adultery with another man s wife with the wife of his neighbor both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. 3 [Incest punishment:] 11 If a man has sexual relations with his father s wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. 12 If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both of them are to be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads. Homosexual sex punishment:] 13 If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. [Incest/Polygamy punishment:] 14 If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you. [Bestiality punishment:] 15 If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 16 If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. [Incest punishment:] 17 If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They are to be publicly removed from their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible. [Sex during period punishment:]18 If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them are to be cut off from their people. 4 [Incest punishment:] 19 Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, for that would dishonor a close relative; both of you would be held responsible. 20 If a man has sexual relations with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless. 21 If a man marries his brother s wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless. Deuteronomy 22:20-21: [Penalty for a woman s not being a virgin for marriage:] 20 But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you." 1 Samuel 18:27-29: 27 [Micah, David s first wife:] David rose up and went, he and his men, and struck down two hundred men among the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might become the king s son-in-law. So Saul gave him Michal his daughter for a wife. 28 When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul s daughter, loved him, 29 then Saul was even more afraid of David. Thus Saul was David s enemy continually. 1 Samuel 27:3: [David s second and third wives/polygamy:] And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal s widow. 5 2 Samuel 5:13: [David s multiple wives and concubines/polygamy/adultery:] Meanwhile David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David. 6 3 Compare: Deuteronomy 22:24: then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 4 Compare: Leviticus 15:24: If a man has sexual relations with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean. 5 Compare: 1 Samuel 30:5: Now David s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. (See also 2 Samuel 2:2.) 6 More evidence of David committing adultery: 2 Samuel 11:2-27: Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 4 David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified

5 5 1 Kings 3:6-14: [God showed lovingkindness to David, and David kept all God s commandments and statutes:] 6 Then Solomon said, You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7 Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours? 10 It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 God said to him, Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. 13 I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. 14 If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days. 1 Kings 8:66: [David is blessed:] On the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the king [Solomon]. Then they went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people. 7 herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, I am pregnant. 6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David.7 When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. 8 Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house, and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king s house, and a present from the king [c]was sent out after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 Now when they told David, saying, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? 11 Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing. 12 Then David said to Uriah, Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.13 Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord s servants, but he did not go down to his house. 14 Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 He had written in the letter, saying, Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die. 16 So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David s servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. 19 He charged the messenger, saying, When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, 20 and if it happens that the king s wrath rises and he says to you, Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall? then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 22 So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. 24 Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. 25 Then David said to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab, Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it ; and so encourage him. 26 Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord. 7 Compare: 1 Samuel 26:25: Then Saul said to David, Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and surely prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place. 1 Kings 2:45: But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. 1 Kings 5:7: When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people. NT Passages: Matthew 21:9: The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest! Mark 11:10: Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!

6 1 Kings 2:45: [Solomon is blessed:] But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever Kings 11:4: [Solomon had multiple wives/polygamy:] For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 9 NEW TESTAMENT (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE): JESUS WORDS: Matthew 5:27-28: 27 [Adultery/Lusting in Heart:] You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery ; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:31-32: 31 [Unchastity/Fornication:] It was said, Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce ; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, 10 makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Matthew 15:19-20: 19 [Adultery/Fornication:] For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. Matthew 19:3-10: 3 [Divorce/Adultery:] Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? 4 And He answered and said, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. 7 They said to Him, Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? 8 He said to them, Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. 10 The disciples said to Him, If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry. Matthew 19:11-12: [Better to be a eunuch:] 11 But He said to them, Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it. Matthew 19:17-18: 17 [Adultery:] if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. 18 Then he said to Him, Which ones? And Jesus said, You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery Matthew 22:25-30: 25 [No Marriage in Heaven:] Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to 8 See also: 1 Kings 10:23 So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 9 See also: 1 Kings 11:1-2: [Solomon Turns from God] [1] Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, [2] from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Solomon held fast to these in love. 10 Unchasity is translated fornication in the King James Version; compare Revelation 2:14.

7 7 the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her? 29 Jesus replied, You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Mark 10:11-12: [Adultery:] 11 And He said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; 12 and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery. 11 PAUL: 2 Corinthians 6:14: [Not Marrying Atheists:] Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 11 Compare: Luke 16:18: Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery. [And see Matthew 5:31-32 and 19:9 passages below.]