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AUGUST 25
When it swirls around smoothly;
At the last it bites like a serpent,
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And stings like a viper.
Your eyes will see strange things, 7:2 sexual immorality. There is a great dan-
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And your heart will utter perverse ger of sexual sin when single (Matt. 19:12).
things. Marriage is God’s only provision for sexual ful-
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Yes, you will be like one who lies down fillment. Marriage should not be reduced sim-
in the midst of the sea, ply to that, however. Paul has a much higher
Or like one who lies at the top of the view and articulates it in Ephesians 5:22,23.He
mast, saying: is, here, stressing the issue of sexual sin for
35 “They have struck me, but I was not people who are single.
hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel 7:5 deprive. Literally, “stop depriving each
it. other!” This command may indicate that this
When shall I awake, that I may seek kind of deprivation was going on among
another drink?” believers,perhaps reacting to the gross sexual
sins of their past and wanting to leave all that
1 Corinthians 7:1–19 behind. Husbands and wives may abstain
Now concerning the things of which you temporarily from sexual activity, but only
7 wrote to me: when they mutually agree to do so for inter-
cession, as a part of their fasting. come
It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2 Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, together again. Sexual intercourse is to be
soon renewed after the spiritual interruption.
let each man have his own wife, and let each so that Satan does not tempt. After the
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woman have her own husband. Let the hus- agreed-upon “time” of abstinence, sexual
band render to his wife the affection due her, desires intensify and a spouse becomes more
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and likewise also the wife to her husband. The vulnerable to sinful desire.
wife does not have authority over her own
body, but the husband does. And likewise the
husband does not have authority over his own she is willing to live with him, let him not
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body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one divorce her. And a woman who has a husband
another except with consent for a time, that who does not believe, if he is willing to live with
you may give yourselves to fasting and her, let her not divorce him. For the unbeliev-
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prayer; and come together again so that Satan ing husband is sanctified by the wife, and the
does not tempt you because of your lack of unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband;
self-control. But I say this as a concession, not otherwise your children would be unclean, but
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as a commandment. For I wish that all men now they are holy. But if the unbeliever
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were even as I myself. But each one has his departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is
own gift from God, one in this manner and not under bondage in such cases. But God has
another in that. called us to peace. For how do you know, O
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8 But I say to the unmarried and to the wid- wife, whether you will save your husband? Or
ows: It is good for them if they remain even as how do you know, O husband, whether you will
I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, save your wife?
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let them marry. For it is better to marry than 17 But as God has distributed to each one, as
to burn with passion. the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.
10 Now to the married I command, yet not I And so I ordain in all the churches. Was any-
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but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her one called while circumcised? Let him not
husband. But even if she does depart, let her become uncircumcised. Was anyone called
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remain unmarried or be reconciled to her hus- while uncircumcised? Let him not be circum-
band. And a husband is not to divorce his wife. cised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircum-
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12 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any cision is nothing, but keeping the command-
brother has a wife who does not believe, and ments of God is what matters.
DAY 25: How does Paul address the issue of divorce for the Corinthian church?
Paul taught about divorce in the context of answering a number of questions that the church
had sent to him.The first of those questions had to do with marriage, an area of trouble due to the
moral corruption of the surrounding culture that tolerated fornication, adultery, homosexuality,
polygamy, and concubinage.
The apostle reminded the believers that his teaching was based on what Jesus had already
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