Study Desk

Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh.

for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.

Now in response to the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to use a woman for sex.”

Do not deprive one another—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.

I say to the unmarried and to widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am.

For the unbelieving husband is made holy by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy.

Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife.

For he who is called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called as a free man is Christ’s slave.

Because of the present distress, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.

and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away.

I am saying this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is proper and so that you may be devoted to the Lord without distraction.

If any man thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, if she is getting beyond the usual age for marriage, and he feels he should marry—he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married.

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as there are many “gods” and many “lords”—

yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.

For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?

So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge.

For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned about oxen?

Isn’t he really saying it for our sake? Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop.

If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?

For my part I have used none of these rights, nor have I written these things that they may be applied in my case. For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast!