1. Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.”
2. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
3. Let the husband render to the wife due affection, and likewise the wife to the husband.
4. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you for lack of self-control.
6. I speak this as a concession and not as a command.
7. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man has his proper gift from God, one after this manner and another after that.
8. I say to the unmarried and widows that it is good for them if they live even as I am.