In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, Paul grounds bodily obedience in belonging to Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. First Thessalonians 4:1–8 joins that obedience to pleasing God and treating others honorably. These reasons give sexual purity its purpose: a life in which desire, intimacy and conduct serve the Lord and the good of the people he calls you to love.
Honor the Lord who has claimed your whole life
Honor God by treating your body, your desires and the people you encounter as matters of faithfulness to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, Paul tells believers that the Holy Spirit dwells in them and that they have been bought with a price. Their response is to glorify God in their bodies. You can therefore approach sexual purity with a positive purpose: to give the Lord the bodily life that already belongs to him.
Paul explains that purpose in 1 Corinthians 6:12–14. He qualifies the claim that all things are lawful: everything does not benefit a person, and freedom must not become being mastered by an appetite. He then answers language about food and the stomach by declaring that the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God raised the Lord and will raise his people. The body has a future in God’s saving purpose, so what you do with it cannot be dismissed as spiritually unimportant.
In 1 Corinthians 6:15–17, Paul makes the issue concrete. Believers’ bodies are members of Christ; joining one of them sexually to a prostitute contradicts that belonging. He quotes Genesis 2:24 because sexual union makes the two one flesh. The union involves the persons themselves and carries a significance their intentions cannot simply cancel. Paul uses this truth to expose the wrong of the encounter; he is not instructing the believer to continue it as though the encounter had established a faithful marriage.
His commands in 1 Corinthians 6:18–20 follow from those reasons: flee sexual immorality and glorify God in your body. This calls for actual changes in conduct, sustained by gratitude for belonging to Christ. The same church has just been reminded that people with sinful histories have been washed, sanctified and justified in the Lord Jesus and by God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:9–11). Holiness is the life of people whom God cleanses and claims.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · Melanie A. Howard
Receive marriage and unmarried devotion as ways to serve God
Begin with gratitude for God’s creation. Genesis 1:26–31 describes both male and female as made in his image, blesses them with fruitfulness and responsibility, and calls the completed creation very good. Genesis 2:18–25 then presents marriage through the gift of a corresponding companion. The man recognizes the woman as his own flesh and bone; the account explains that a man leaves his parents, cleaves to his wife and becomes one flesh with her. Cleaving means holding fast. Sexual union belongs within this attachment to a person and the formation of a shared life.
Jesus gives that account moral weight in Matthew 19:3–6. Asked whether a man may divorce his wife for every cause, he cites both the creation of male and female and the joining of husband and wife as one flesh. Because God has joined them, people are not to separate them. In Matthew 19:7–9 he distinguishes Moses’ permission in response to hard hearts from the purpose expressed at creation. His answer includes an exception involving fornication, whose precise scope belongs to the fuller study of the marriage bond. The clear direction here is to keep faith with the person to whom you are joined, rather than treating a marriage as disposable.
Honoring marriage includes honoring its intimacy. Hebrews 13:4 places the honor of marriage and its undefiled bed alongside God’s judgment of sexual immorality and adultery. First Timothy 4:1–5 also rejects teaching that forbids marriage and speaks of receiving God’s good creation with thanksgiving. Bodily intimacy in marriage is something to receive faithfully and gratefully. Purity does not require treating the body or marriage as inherently shameful.
At the same time, following Christ does not require everyone to marry. Matthew 19:10–12 recognizes foregoing marriage for the kingdom’s sake as a calling some can receive. First Corinthians 7:7–9 acknowledges differing gifts and gives marriage as good counsel to those who do not exercise sexual restraint. Later, Paul commends the opportunity for undistracted devotion while explicitly saying that marriage is not sin (1 Corinthians 7:25–35). Whether married or unmarried, give yourself to pleasing the Lord. Marriage brings real responsibilities; unmarried faithfulness has real worth and purpose.
Further study: James V. Brownson · NET Bible translators and editors
Practice holiness by honoring other people
Let the desire to please God govern your treatment of other people. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1–3, Paul urges believers to grow in the way of life they have already learned through the Lord Jesus. He names their sanctification—being set apart for God—as God’s will, and immediately applies it to abstaining from fornication. Sexual purity belongs to a whole life directed toward God, including the relationships in which another person can be honored or wronged.
First Thessalonians 4:4–8 develops that responsibility through holiness and honor. The instruction to possess one’s “vessel” most probably concerns governing one’s body; it has also been understood as taking or living with a wife. Either way, Paul sets honorable conduct against lustful passion and forbids overstepping and defrauding another in the matter. He says that the Lord judges such wrongs, calls his people to holiness and gives them his Holy Spirit. Take responsibility for your conduct, and seek the other person’s good before God. Desire does not confer a right to use someone.
This honorable regard also shapes relationships beyond marriage. First Timothy 5:1–2 tells Timothy to approach older people as fathers and mothers, younger men as brothers, and younger women as sisters with all purity. The setting is a pastoral charge, but the family language helps show what faithful care looks like: people are to receive respect and consideration. Ephesians 5:1–4 gives the whole church Christ’s self-giving love as its pattern and joins sexual holiness to the way people speak, directing their words toward thanksgiving. Let purity include generous care and speech that honors others.
Scripture also distinguishes wrongdoing from suffering another person’s violence. In 2 Samuel 13:1–14, Amnon uses deception to bring his sister Tamar to care for him. She tells him not to force her and names the act as folly; he refuses to listen and overpowers her. His subsequent rejection compounds the wrong, while the narrative records her grief and desolation (2 Samuel 13:15–22). The responsibility for the assault belongs to him. Someone else’s violation is not your chosen sexual sin. To honor another person includes hearing that person, refusing coercion and taking the suffering caused by sexual wrongdoing seriously.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors
Give your spouse faithfulness, affection and mutual care
If you are married, cultivate the shared intimacy entrusted to you and your spouse. First Corinthians 7:1–5 addresses questions from the Corinthians about sexual relations. The expression about not touching a woman concerns sexual relations in this setting. Paul answers by directing each husband and wife toward their own spouse and by giving both a responsibility to render “due benevolence” to the other. Here that means their marital sexual duty. The instruction makes care for the other person a positive part of fidelity.
Paul is deliberately reciprocal in 1 Corinthians 7:3–5. He says both that the wife’s body is under her husband’s authority and that the husband’s body is under his wife’s. Neither spouse receives these words as a one-sided privilege. He allows the temporary abstinence described for fasting and prayer by agreement, followed by coming together again, recognizing the pressure of temptation. Give attention to each other’s needs, speak honestly, and seek willing, considerate intimacy together. His concern about temptation calls both spouses to care; it does not transfer responsibility for someone’s chosen sin to the other.
The manner of that care is explained by the wider marriage teaching. Ephesians 5:25–29 calls a husband to love as Christ gave himself for the church and to nourish and cherish his wife as his own body. The one-flesh union supplies the reason for this care, and the passage ends with love and respect (Ephesians 5:31–33). First Peter 3:7 commands understanding and honor, naming husband and wife as fellow heirs of life’s grace. These instructions call for generosity that takes the spouse’s welfare seriously. Coercing a spouse contradicts that love and honor; reciprocal responsibility gives neither person permission to inflict harm.
Faithfulness also gives desire a good direction. Proverbs 5:1–14 describes the enticing beginning and destructive end of adultery; verses 15–20 then direct the hearer to rejoice in the wife of his youth and remain delighted by her love. The well and fountain imagery makes the point personal: cherish the intimacy of your own marriage. The LORD sees the person’s ways (Proverbs 5:21–23), so delight and accountability belong together. The Song gives the woman a voice in desire and invitation (Song of Solomon 7:10–13), and pictures devoted love as a seal, a fire that waters cannot extinguish and a treasure wealth cannot purchase (Song of Solomon 8:5–7). Receive affection and bodily delight as gifts to cherish faithfully. The poetry expresses love’s preciousness without imposing a required pattern of feelings or acts on every couple.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · NET Bible translators and editors · Eric Ortlund
Bring your heart and desires under God’s direction
Faithfulness includes the attention and intention you give another person. In Matthew 5:27–28, Jesus recalls the command against adultery and declares that looking at a woman to lust after her is already adultery in the heart. Exodus 20:14 and 17 had forbidden both adultery and coveting a neighbor’s wife. Jesus makes the inward demand unavoidable: outward restraint does not excuse deliberately cherishing a desire for an illicit relationship. Take responsibility for the intention you welcome and nourish, as well as for bodily action.
The next sayings press for a decisive response. Matthew 5:29–30 pictures removing an offending eye or hand because losing it would be better than the whole body being cast into hell. The severe imagery confronts the cost of retaining what leads into sin. Since Jesus has just located adultery in the heart, injuring an organ cannot supply the faithfulness he requires. Give up what you are using to encourage sin and redirect the attention and conduct themselves. Mark 7:18–23 explains the same inward concern: food passes through the stomach, whereas evil thoughts, adulteries and other wrongs come from within and defile the person.
This care for the heart requires distinguishing good desire, temptation and chosen sin. The desire and invitation in Song of Solomon 7:10–13 give bodily attraction and longing a positive place in love. James 1:12–15 describes endurance under testing, then traces the destructive course of a person’s own desire enticing them, conceiving and bringing forth sin. Evil desire needs resistance; it is not a command you must obey. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted yet without sin, so the experience of temptation is not by itself proof that you have consented to wrongdoing. At the same time, Jesus’ teaching means that sin can be chosen inwardly before any outward sexual act.
Bring this struggle to God honestly. James 1:13–18 denies that God entices people to evil and presents him as the giver of good gifts and new life through the word of truth. Hebrews 4:14–16 calls you to hold fast to Jesus and approach the throne of grace because he understands human weakness. Ask for mercy, truthful understanding of your desires and help to obey. The faithful response to temptation is neither to excuse the desire that draws you toward sin nor to abandon hope because you face it.
Further study: Craig S. Keener
Receive Scripture’s sexual boundaries with humility
Learn what the biblical commands mean through the relationships and actions they actually name. The word commonly rendered “fornication” is used in 1 Corinthians 5:1 for a man’s union with his father’s wife; in 1 Corinthians 6:15–18 the concrete issue is union with a prostitute. Leviticus 18:6–23 places sexual boundaries around kinship and marriage, and also forbids other sexual unions. Paul’s directions in 1 Corinthians 7:2–5 place sexual relations within each person’s own marriage. Together with Hebrews 13:4, these texts give substantial grounds for reserving sexual union for marriage and keeping faith within it. Agreement or strong desire by themselves do not settle whether a union is faithful to God.
Romans 1:24–27 also belongs in this teaching. Paul describes human beings exchanging the Creator’s truth for idolatry, dishonoring their bodies, and abandoning male-female relations. He explicitly names men desiring and engaging sexually with men; the corresponding statement about women most probably concerns women with women. His words do not expressly limit the wrong to prostitution or force. The relation between worship, creation and conduct gives strong reason to understand the prohibition as wider than those abuses. Some Christian interpreters instead argue that his account targets idolatrous, excessive or exploitative sexuality and does not decide the place of a faithful same-sex partnership. This is a real disagreement about the passage’s reasoning and application; the further study examines the evidence.
Read the associated language carefully as well. The KJV expressions “effeminate” and “abusers of themselves with mankind” in 1 Corinthians 6:9 are most plausibly about participants in male same-sex sexual conduct. The precise range of the terms is disputed; the first should not be turned into a judgment based on someone’s mannerisms. Paul’s list addresses wrongdoing in a church already being corrected for defrauding one another, and it includes greed, theft, drunkenness and abusive speech alongside sexual sins (1 Corinthians 6:7–11). The call is for every believer to receive cleansing and obey Christ.
Paul’s argument requires humility from the reader. After naming sexual wrongs, Romans 1:28–32 includes envy, deceit, pride and mercilessness; Romans 2:1–4 then confronts the person who judges others while doing wrong and points to God’s kindness leading to repentance. Romans 3:9–26 brings both Jews and Gentiles under sin and announces justification freely by grace through Christ. Receive the sexual teaching as part of your own accountability to God. Treat others with the mercy, truth and honor that the same Scriptures require.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · William Loader · James V. Brownson · James V. Brownson
Turn away from sin and pursue a faithful life
Give conviction a corresponding action. In Genesis 39:7–10, Joseph refuses his master’s wife because the proposed act would betray the trust placed in him and be sin against God. When she repeatedly presses him, he refuses to lie with her or be with her; when she seizes his garment, he leaves it and flees (Genesis 39:11–12). The narrative then records a false accusation and imprisonment, while continuing to say that the LORD was with him (Genesis 39:13–23). His faithfulness has a clear reason and a costly response. Obedience does not depend on an immediate improvement in circumstances.
Rely on God while taking the way away from sin. First Corinthians 10:1–13 recalls Israel’s deliverance and provision, followed by idolatry, sexual wrongdoing and other failures. Paul warns the person who assumes he cannot fall, then promises that God is faithful and provides a way to endure temptation. The immediate command is to flee idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14). The promise supports an obedient response to pressure. It is a reason to use the way God provides, not to remain deliberately where you are cultivating disobedience.
Turning away has a positive direction. Second Timothy 2:20–26 connects a vessel prepared for good work with fleeing youthful desires and pursuing righteousness, faith, love and peace alongside people who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Timothy is also to avoid quarrels and instruct opponents gently; the desires in view extend beyond sexuality. Give your attention to these good responsibilities with other believers. Purity grows within a life occupied with worship, truthful relationships and service.
Walk in dependence on the Spirit as you act. Galatians 5:13–26 places sexual sins among the works of the flesh, alongside hostility and envy, and calls believers to serve one another in love. The Spirit’s fruit includes love, patience, gentleness and temperance, meaning self-control. Flesh here cannot simply mean the physical body is evil, because the list also concerns attitudes and relationships. Colossians 3:1–17 gives the same movement a concrete form: because your life is with Christ, put sexual and other wrongdoing to death, and put on compassion, kindness, patience, forgiveness and love. Receive his word, practice that conduct and keep growing with his people.
Return to Christ and walk in the cleansing he gives
If you have sinned sexually, acknowledge what you have done and turn to Christ for forgiveness and a changed life. First Corinthians 6:9–11 speaks seriously about exclusion from God’s kingdom, then tells the church that people who had lived in such sins have been washed, sanctified and justified in Jesus’ name and by God’s Spirit. These are grounds for hope and obedience. The passage announces cleansing and a new belonging; it does not promise that every temptation or consequence immediately disappears.
David’s history shows why confession must tell the truth about the wrong. In 2 Samuel 11:2–17, he learns that Bathsheba is Uriah’s wife, takes her, attempts to conceal what happened and arranges Uriah’s death. Nathan’s account of a rich man taking a poor man’s beloved lamb exposes the king’s willingness to condemn someone else while concealing his own actions (2 Samuel 12:1–9). When David acknowledges his sin, Nathan announces the LORD’s forgiveness while also declaring consequences (2 Samuel 12:10–15). Return to God without hiding the people harmed by your conduct or treating forgiveness as an erasure of that harm.
Psalm 51 gives words for that return. The prayer appeals to God’s lovingkindness, acknowledges transgression and asks for a clean heart and restored joy (Psalm 51:1–12). Its declaration of sin against God in verse 4 does not erase responsibility toward other people: verse 14 also seeks deliverance from bloodguiltiness. A contrite heart matters before God (Psalm 51:16–17). Ask him to renew the desires and purposes from which your conduct grows, and let confession lead toward truthful obedience.
First John 1:5–2:2 joins this honesty to confidence in Jesus. Claiming fellowship while walking in darkness is false, and claiming to have no sin is self-deception. Yet God forgives and cleanses those who confess, and Jesus Christ the righteous is their advocate with the Father. The writer’s stated purpose is that believers should not sin; when they do, their hope remains in Christ. Receive that mercy and resume the conduct his word requires. Galatians 6:1–5 also directs fellow believers to restore someone gently, watch themselves and bear burdens. Seek and offer help that combines truthful correction, humility and continuing responsibility.
God’s grace gives this obedience its lasting purpose. Titus 2:11–14 says that saving grace teaches believers to turn from ungodliness and worldly desires and to live faithfully while waiting for Christ. He gave himself to redeem and purify a people eager for good works. Honor him with your body, keep faith in the relationships entrusted to you, and pursue the good he teaches. That life rests on the Savior who gives himself for his people and calls them to belong to him.
Read the passages
Scripture in context
39 contextual selections for this subject, including the passages cited above and further related reading. Every selected range is reproduced in full from the KJV. Context notes identify the setting and kind of evidence.
Creation narrative 1 selections
Genesis 1:26–31 KJV · In this guide
Context: The creation account culminates in humanity, male and female, bearing God’s image, receiving blessing and responsibility, within creation called very good.
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Creation narrative and foundational explanation 1 selections
Genesis 2:18–25 KJV · In this guide
Context: God provides the corresponding human companion; the man recognizes shared flesh and bone, and the narrator explains leaving, cleaving and one flesh.
2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Narrative example 1 selections
Genesis 39:1–23 KJV · In this guide
Context: Joseph is entrusted with Potiphar’s household, refuses his wife’s repeated demands, flees, is falsely accused and imprisoned, and remains accompanied by the LORD.
39:1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.
39:2 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
39:3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
39:4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
39:5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.
39:6 And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.
39:7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
39:8 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
39:9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
39:10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.
39:11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.
39:12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
39:13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,
39:14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:
39:15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.
39:16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.
39:17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
39:18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.
39:19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.
39:20 And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.
39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
39:22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
39:23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
Covenant law 1 selections
Exodus 20:1–17 KJV · In this guide
Context: God addresses Israel as its deliverer and gives covenant commands including prohibitions of adultery and coveting a neighbor’s wife.
20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
20:15 Thou shalt not steal.
20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Ritual legislation 1 selections
Leviticus 15:16–18 KJV
Context: Within bodily-discharge regulations, an emission and intercourse occasion washing and temporary ritual uncleanness. No confession of moral wrongdoing is commanded in this unit.
15:16 And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
15:17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.
15:18 The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
Covenant legislation 1 selections
Leviticus 18:1–30 KJV · In this guide
Context: Israel is to live by the LORD’s ordinances rather than the practices of Egypt and Canaan; kinship prohibitions and other sexual boundaries occur within covenant and land accountability.
18:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
18:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.
18:3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
18:4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
18:5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
18:6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.
18:7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
18:8 The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
18:9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.
18:10 The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.
18:11 The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
18:12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.
18:13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman.
18:14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.
18:15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
18:16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
18:17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
18:18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
18:19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.
18:20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.
18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
18:23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
18:24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
18:26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
18:27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
18:28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
18:29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
Narrative with explicit moral evaluation 1 selections
2 Samuel 11:1–27 KJV · In this guide
Context: David learns that Bathsheba is Uriah’s wife, takes her, attempts concealment, arranges Uriah’s death and takes her as wife; the narrator states the LORD’s displeasure.
11:1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
11:3 And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
11:4 And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.
11:5 And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
11:6 And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.
11:7 And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered.
11:8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king.
11:9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
11:10 And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house?
11:11 And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
11:12 And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow.
11:13 And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house.
11:14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
11:15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.
11:16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were.
11:17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
11:18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;
11:19 And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king,
11:20 And if so be that the king’s wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall?
11:21 Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
11:22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for.
11:23 And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate.
11:24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
11:25 Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him.
11:26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
11:27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
Prophetic confrontation in narrative 1 selections
2 Samuel 12:1–25 KJV · In this guide
Context: Nathan’s story exposes David; divine rebuke names his actions, David confesses, and forgiveness is announced alongside consequences. The ensuing account of the child’s illness and death and Solomon’s birth preserves the narrative aftermath.
12:1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
12:2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
12:3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
12:4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
12:8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
12:12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
12:14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
12:15 And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.
12:16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
12:17 And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
12:18 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?
12:19 But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
12:20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
12:21 Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
12:22 And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?
12:23 But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
12:24 And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him.
12:25 And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.
Narrative of wrongdoing and its effects 1 selections
2 Samuel 13:1–22 KJV · In this guide
Context: Amnon uses a deception to isolate Tamar, refuses her protest, forces her and sends her away; the account preserves her grief and the household’s response.
13:1 And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.
13:2 And Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do any thing to her.
13:3 But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man.
13:4 And he said unto him, Why art thou, being the king’s son, lean from day to day? wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.
13:5 And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick: and when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it at her hand.
13:6 So Amnon lay down, and made himself sick: and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat at her hand.
13:7 Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go now to thy brother Amnon’s house, and dress him meat.
13:8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house; and he was laid down. And she took flour, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes.
13:9 And she took a pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, Have out all men from me. And they went out every man from him.
13:10 And Amnon said unto Tamar, Bring the meat into the chamber, that I may eat of thine hand. And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother.
13:11 And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister.
13:12 And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.
13:13 And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.
13:14 Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her.
13:15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.
13:16 And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.
13:17 Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.
13:18 And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.
13:19 And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.
13:20 And Absalom her brother said unto her, Hath Amnon thy brother been with thee? but hold now thy peace, my sister: he is thy brother; regard not this thing. So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house.
13:21 But when king David heard of all these things, he was very wroth.
13:22 And Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad: for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.
Penitential prayer 1 selections
Psalms 51:1–19 KJV · In this guide
Context: A penitential prayer seeks mercy, acknowledges guilt, asks for inward renewal and restored joy, and ends with Zion and acceptable worship.
51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
51:6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
51:18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
51:19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Wisdom instruction and imagery 1 selections
Proverbs 5:1–23 KJV · In this guide
Context: A father’s wisdom lesson moves from the allure and end of adultery to delight in one’s wife and accountability before the LORD.
5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
5:2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
5:6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
5:7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
5:8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
5:9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
5:10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
5:11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
5:12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
5:13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
5:14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
5:15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
5:16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
5:17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
5:19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
5:20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
5:23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Love poetry 1 selections
Song of Solomon 7:1–8:7 KJV · In this guide
Context: Love poetry moves through admiration, the woman’s response and invitation, longing and restraint, to love’s strength and pricelessness. The guide does not assume a settled dramatic chronology.
7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
7:2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
7:3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
7:4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
7:5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
7:6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
7:7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
7:8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
7:9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
7:10 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.
7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
7:12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
7:13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
8:1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.
8:2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
8:3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
8:4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
8:5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
8:6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Jesus’ ethical teaching and figurative warning 1 selections
Matthew 5:27–30 KJV · In this guide
Context: Within Jesus’ teaching about righteousness, the adultery command is brought to the heart’s lustful gaze and followed by severe eye-and-hand imagery.
5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Gospel teaching in a controversy 1 selections
Matthew 19:1–12 KJV · In this guide
Context: Jesus answers a test about divorce by joining Genesis 1 and 2, distinguishes Moses’ permission from the beginning, and then answers the disciples about foregoing marriage.
19:1 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;
19:2 And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.
19:3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
19:7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
19:10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
19:11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
19:12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
Gospel teaching with explanatory list 1 selections
Mark 7:14–23 KJV · In this guide
Context: Following the dispute about eating with unwashed hands, Jesus explains that evil coming from within, rather than food entering the stomach, defiles a person.
7:14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
7:15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
7:16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
7:17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
7:19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
7:20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Apostolic theological argument 1 selections
Romans 1:16–2:11 KJV · In this guide
Context: The gospel’s saving power is announced before Paul describes idolatry and disorder, lists many wrongs, and confronts the judging person with God’s impartial judgment and call to repentance.
1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
1:30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
2:8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
2:9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
2:10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
Apostolic gospel argument 1 selections
Romans 3:9–26 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul brings Jews and Gentiles together under sin and then announces justification freely by grace through Christ’s redemption.
3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Apostolic church correction 1 selections
1 Corinthians 5:1–13 KJV · In this guide
Context: A reported union with a father’s wife elicits correction of the church’s boasting, a command concerning its member and a distinction between judging insiders and outsiders.
5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
5:2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
5:6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Apostolic correction and gospel assurance 1 selections
1 Corinthians 6:1–11 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul rebukes lawsuits and defrauding fellow believers, warns that unrighteousness excludes from the kingdom, and recalls the church’s cleansing in Christ.
6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
6:4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
6:5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6:6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
6:7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
6:8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Apostolic argument and command 1 selections
1 Corinthians 6:12–20 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul qualifies claims of freedom and appetite, appeals to resurrection and belonging to Christ, applies Genesis to union with a prostitute, and commands bodily honor.
6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
6:13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
6:14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Apostolic instruction and counsel 1 selections
1 Corinthians 7:1–9 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul replies to a letter about sexual relations, gives reciprocal spousal duties and agreed temporary abstinence, and recognizes differing gifts and counsel for unmarried people.
7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
7:3 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
7:4 The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
7:6 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.
7:7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
Apostolic counsel with stated circumstances 1 selections
1 Corinthians 7:25–40 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul’s judgment about unmarried life names present distress, the passing world and undistracted devotion; marriage is expressly permitted.
7:25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
7:26 I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.
7:27 Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
7:28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
7:30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
7:31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
7:32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
7:33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
7:34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
7:35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
7:36 But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.
7:37 Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.
7:38 So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.
7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
7:40 But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.
Apostolic use of biblical narrative 1 selections
1 Corinthians 10:1–22 KJV · In this guide
Context: Israel’s deliverance and subsequent wrongdoing warn the church against presumption; God’s faithful provision in temptation leads to fleeing idolatry, explained through incompatible participation at the Lord’s table and an idolatrous table.
10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
10:2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
10:3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
10:5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
10:8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
10:9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
10:14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
10:15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
10:18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
10:19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
10:20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
10:22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
Apostolic argument and exhortation 1 selections
Galatians 5:13–26 KJV · In this guide
Context: Freedom serves neighbor-love; the Spirit opposes the flesh’s works and bears fruit, including self-control, in those who belong to Christ.
5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
5:26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Apostolic community instruction 1 selections
Galatians 6:1–5 KJV · In this guide
Context: Following the call to walk by the Spirit, believers are directed to restore the fallen gently, carry burdens, watch themselves and examine their own work.
6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
6:4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden.
Apostolic exhortation 1 selections
Ephesians 5:1–14 KJV · In this guide
Context: Christ’s self-giving love introduces commands concerning sexuality, greed, speech and gratitude; children of light discern what pleases the Lord.
5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
5:7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
5:10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
5:12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Apostolic household instruction 2 selections
Ephesians 5:15–33 KJV · In this guide
Context: The household teaching follows Spirit-filled worship and mutual regard; wives and husbands receive distinct instructions, and husbands’ love is explained through Christ’s self-giving and the one-body relation.
5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
1 Peter 3:1–7 KJV · In this guide
Context: Wives’ conduct and hope in God are followed by a charge to husbands to live with understanding and honor their wives as fellow heirs.
3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:
3:6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
Apostolic identity and ethical instruction 1 selections
Colossians 3:1–17 KJV · In this guide
Context: Life with the risen Christ grounds putting sexual and other sins to death and putting on compassionate, truthful and thankful life in one body.
3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
3:14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
3:17 And what soever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Apostolic instruction 2 selections
1 Thessalonians 4:1–8 KJV · In this guide
Context: Instruction already received in the Lord Jesus is to shape increasing obedience; sanctification, honor, others’ protection, judgment and the gift of the Spirit govern the sexual commands.
4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
4:2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
4:6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
4:8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
1 Timothy 4:1–5 KJV · In this guide
Context: The warning against false teaching specifically names forbidding marriage and foods, and grounds grateful reception in God’s creation.
4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Apostolic instruction and testimony 1 selections
1 Timothy 1:8–17 KJV
Context: The proper use of law exposes wrongdoing contrary to sound teaching; Paul then thanks Christ for mercy shown to a persecutor.
1:8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1:10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
1:11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Pastoral charge with shared ethical significance 1 selections
1 Timothy 5:1–2 KJV · In this guide
Pastoral instruction 1 selections
2 Timothy 2:20–26 KJV · In this guide
Context: The honorable-vessel illustration leads to fleeing youthful desires, pursuing virtues with others and gentle instruction of opponents.
2:20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2:23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Apostolic gospel reasoning 1 selections
Titus 2:11–15 KJV · In this guide
Context: Saving grace explains the ethical instructions and trains a people redeemed by Christ to live faithfully while awaiting him.
2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
2:15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
Christological exhortation 1 selections
Hebrews 4:14–16 KJV · In this guide
Context: Jesus’ heavenly priesthood and sinless experience of testing ground the commands to hold fast and draw near for mercy and help.
4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Christian exhortation 1 selections
Hebrews 13:1–6 KJV · In this guide
Context: Practical exhortations join brotherly love, hospitality, care for prisoners, honor for marriage and contentment grounded in God’s presence.
13:1 Let brotherly love continue.
13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Wisdom-shaped apostolic exhortation 1 selections
James 1:12–18 KJV · In this guide
Context: Endurance under testing is commended; enticement toward evil is traced through desire to sin and death, while God gives good gifts and new birth through truth.
1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Apostolic pastoral instruction 1 selections
1 John 1:5–2:2 KJV · In this guide
Context: God’s light exposes false claims of fellowship and sinlessness; confession, Christ’s cleansing blood and his advocacy support a life that turns from sin.
1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Sources & interpretation
The teaching starts with the cited Scripture. These consulted works inform wording, context, and interpretive questions. No qualified human review has been recorded for this guide.
What does possessing one’s vessel mean?
First Thessalonians 4:3–8 clearly joins abstinence, honor and responsibility toward another with God’s call and Spirit. Verse 4 contains the disputed metaphor.
- The vessel is one’s body, to be governed honorably.
- The expression concerns acquiring or living with a wife.
- A narrower bodily reading takes vessel as a euphemism for the sexual organ.
PROBABLE: bodily self-government. STRONG: the paragraph requires holy, honorable sexual conduct on each reading. No spouse-acquisition method or universally compulsory marriage is derived from this phrase.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors
Further examination: How do the explicit commands in verses 3, 5–8 constrain the metaphor, and what does 1 Corinthians 7 prevent us from assuming?
How far do the sexual terms and Romans 1 extend?
Romans 1:26–27 describes departure from male-female relations and reciprocal male desire. Its wider argument names the Creator, idolatry and many wrongs, then confronts the judging reader. First Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 use older English renderings that require care.
- A broad prohibition follows from the sex of the partners and the creation argument, without an explicit coercion or prostitution restriction. Loader judges the historical prohibition broad, while separately arguing for changed contemporary application.
- Brownson emphasizes excessive passion and historical distance from faithful same-sex partnerships; in Jesus’ marriage sayings he emphasizes permanent kinship within the divorce question.
- The two terms in 1 Corinthians 6:9 are malakoi and arsenokoitai. The NET notes understand them as passive and active male participants; narrower exploitation readings remain debated. The word parts alone cannot settle their entire scope.
PROBABLE: Romans 1 condemns same-sex intercourse more broadly than coercion or cult prostitution, and the female reference parallels the male one. STRONG: the chapter cannot become contempt for a group or a claim to superior righteousness. A faithful-partnership exception is not stated in the text; deriving one needs a further interpretive argument. No inference is made that an involuntary experience establishes chosen conduct, or that a person’s orientation can be diagnosed from this passage.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · William Loader · James V. Brownson · James V. Brownson
Further examination: What in Paul’s actual wording establishes the wrong, and what historical or theological premise must each interpretation add before applying the passage today?
How do marital duties, agreement and differing gifts belong together?
First Corinthians 7:3–5 addresses both spouses in corresponding terms, specifies agreement for temporary abstinence and then speaks of differing gifts. Paul later permits marriage while commending unmarried devotion.
- Verse 1 may quote an abstinence slogan from the Corinthians which Paul qualifies.
- It may express Paul’s own qualified commendation of abstinence. Neither reading cancels verses 3–5.
- The reciprocity makes both spouses responsible for care; reading one spouse’s duty as the other’s permission to compel bypasses the matching duty and the commands to love and honor.
VERY_STRONG: the duties are reciprocal and the stated abstinence is by agreement. STRONG: coercion conflicts with the accompanying love and honor. PROBABLE: verse 1 quotes or echoes the Corinthians’ position. Verse 6’s precise referent is not used to decide a general marriage policy.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · NET Bible translators and editors
Further examination: Who receives each command, what does each owe, and how do Christlike love and shared inheritance govern the way that obligation is fulfilled?
Does 1 Corinthians 6:18 make sexual sin uniquely unforgivable?
Paul says the sexually immoral person sins against his own body, within an argument about bodily union with Christ and a prostitute. Immediately before this, he declares cleansing for people with such histories.
- The first clause of verse 18 is Paul’s own contrast, emphasizing sexual sin’s particular relation to one’s body.
- The first clause repeats a Corinthian claim that Paul then corrects; the NET notes favor this tentatively.
UNCERTAIN: the first clause’s speaker. STRONG: the bodily stakes of sexual conduct are explicit. Neither option makes sexual sin beyond cleansing or proves an irreversible spiritual bond with every former partner. Verse 11 must govern any claim about permanent moral contamination.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors
Further examination: How does the argument about bodily belonging explain the warning, and how does verse 11 rule out treating the repentant person as permanently unclean?
How should ritual purity and Israel’s sexual laws inform this guide?
Leviticus 15:16–18 prescribes washing and temporary uncleanness after emissions and intercourse. Leviticus 18 speaks of forbidden unions and defilement of the land; 1 Corinthians 5 applies a sexual boundary within church discipline. Mark 7 identifies moral evil coming from the heart.
- Ritual uncleanness can arise from ordinary bodily events without the unit calling the event a moral offense.
- Forbidden unions in Leviticus 18 concern wrongdoing, yet applying the covenant law to Christian life requires attention to its audience and New Testament treatment.
- Treating every occurrence of uncleanness identically would collapse ritual condition, moral action and later apostolic use into one category.
STRONG: temporary ritual impurity is not interchangeable with chosen sexual sin. The guide receives creation and apostolic instruction together, recognizes the law’s contribution, and does not transfer Israel’s civil penalties or ritual washings into commands for Christians. A complete theology of each Levitical statute is outside this guide.
Further examination: What response does each text require, from whom, and on what grounds? Which conclusions are actually carried forward in the New Testament passages?
How do desire, temptation and sin relate?
The Song welcomes embodied desire; James describes enticing desire giving birth to sin; Jesus locates adultery in a lustful intention; Hebrews names genuine testing without sin.
- Temptation can be resisted without consent to the wrong; an unwanted experience is not identical to the inward choice Jesus condemns.
- A deliberately cherished illicit desire is already a heart-level moral act, so the distinction cannot reduce sin to outward behavior.
- Christian traditions differ on how they describe the guilt and disorder of unchosen sinful impulses. These texts do not supply a complete account of every involuntary experience.
STRONG: keep good desire, enticement, deliberate inward consent and outward action distinguishable. Reject both the claim that every experience of desire is adultery and the claim that desire is morally irrelevant until acted on physically. No claim about a particular person’s inner culpability is made.
Further study: Craig S. Keener
Further examination: Where does each passage locate the responsibility, and how does Christ’s priestly help guide a faithful response without turning a distinction into an excuse?
- 1 Corinthians 6: translation and study notes
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press / NET Bible
Clarifies disputed terms and distinguishes Paul’s argument from reconstructed Corinthian slogans.
What was reviewed
Chapter text and notes 5–6, 8, 10–18; especially the sexual terms, slogans and tentative interpretation of verse 18. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
Lexicons and Fee are cited through these notes, not independently consulted. The note’s choice at verse 18 remains tentative.
- Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:12–20
Melanie A. Howard · Working Preacher / Luther Seminary · 2021-01-17
Highlights bodily membership, communal implications and the connection with spousal obligations in chapter 7.
What was reviewed
Sections “The body and Christ” and “Bodies as temples,” and the preceding paragraphs on freedom and the case in chapter 5. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
Short preaching commentary. Its speculative Gnostic background and expanded health applications are not adopted.
- Jesus and Marriage
James V. Brownson · Author’s New Testament, Theology, and the Church weblog · 2015-01-19
Argues that Jesus’ appeal to creation principally establishes a permanent marital kinship bond in a divorce controversy.
What was reviewed
Complete authored post, excluding reader comments. Accessed 2026-09-26.
Brief interpretive argument. The proposed reason for the male-female citation is qualified by the author; his book is not counted as read.
- 1 Corinthians 7:1: translation note
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press / NET Bible
Explains touching as an idiom for sexual relations and presents the possible Corinthian-slogan reading.
What was reviewed
Displayed translations and complete note 1. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
The cited Greek parallels and Fee’s works were not independently read. The quotation hypothesis is not treated as certain.
- 1 Thessalonians 4: translation and study notes
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press / NET Bible
Prefers body while recording wife and sexual-organ proposals; relates verse 6 to the preceding sexual instruction.
What was reviewed
Verses 1–8 and notes 2, 4–8, including note 5 on vessel and note 6 on defrauding. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
The lexical preference is qualified; Jay Smith’s article and the cited ancient parallels were not independently read.
- 1 Corinthians 7:3: translation note
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press / NET Bible
Confirms that the marital due concerns sexual obligations in this context.
What was reviewed
Displayed translations and complete note 1. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
A short lexical note, not a complete treatment of mutual consent, marriage or textual variants.
- The Wisdom of the Song of Songs: A Pastoral Guide for Preaching and Teaching
Eric Ortlund · Themelios 45(3), 494–514 · 2020-12
Helps distinguish the poetry’s celebration of love from a prescribed sequence of actions.
What was reviewed
Selected concluding discussion: the paragraph on Song 7:10; treatment of 8:6–7; and the comparison of poetic portrayal with explicit commands, ending “the Song does not command; it adorns.” Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
Partial inspection. No reliance on the proposed chronology, divine-name reading in 8:6, cultural generalizations or fuller typological construction.
- Matthew: Do Not Covet Others Sexually (5:27–30)
Craig S. Keener · IVP New Testament Commentary Series / InterVarsity Press, licensed on Bible Gateway
Connects Jesus’ teaching with coveting and explains why bodily injury cannot cure inward lust.
What was reviewed
Complete online subsection; especially the commandments, responsibility for the lustful gaze, eye imagery and qualified claim about deliberate desire. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
The suggested force of the Greek tense is probable in this source, not a mechanical test of culpability. Its ancient citations and modern illustrations are not independently adopted.
- Same-sex relationships: A 1st-century perspective
William Loader · HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 70(1), article 2114; DOI 10.4102/hts.v70i1.2114 · 2014-05-23
Distinguishes a broad historical reading of Paul’s prohibition from the author’s affirmative contemporary ethical conclusion.
What was reviewed
Introduction; Philo discussion; “Paul,” “Recent interpretations,” “Examining Romans 1,” and the three concluding contemporary options. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
Ancient texts are mediated through the article. Reconstructions of Paul’s psychology, physical consequences and modern ethical conclusions are assessed, not treated as biblical statements.
- Response to Gagnon in First Things
James V. Brownson · Author’s New Testament, Theology, and the Church weblog · 2015-03-25
Provides a direct argument for distinguishing the passage’s excessive desire from faithful same-sex partnerships.
What was reviewed
Opening argument through the paragraph beginning “When we confront this distance”; lust, ancient practices and modern partnerships. Accessed 2026-09-26 · Read in part.
An advocacy essay by a biblical scholar, read in part. His book, quoted ancient authors and the full reply exchange were not independently inspected.