Marriage and Self-Control

Fornication is filth. Paul, therefore, by many inferences, grasped the idea that other sins exist outside the body. Others say that this sin has the explicit meaning of the mind, because he who fornicates sins against his own body; that is, against the constitution of his own body and against the human construction itself, and against the principles of our generation, as if he were saying: stop, thus through unlawful mixture you insult the workshop of nature from which even your own body has been defiled.

Others, out of zeal for Paul, say it is better to demonstrate the sin of fornication. Having said earlier, 'Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ,' and having shown from this that he who fornicates fails regarding the members of Christ, he thus shows that every sin follows in this way: for the slanderer, the robber, or the covetous man has sinned against a man whom he slandered or wronged, but he who has fornicated against his own body sins, which is a member of Christ. For as soon as one is completed into the body of Christ through the adoption of the Spirit, he would be accused not only of fornication but also of impiety, as making the members of Christ the members of a prostitute, and insulting his own body as if it were the temple of Christ.

Therefore he also proceeds: 'Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, of whom you have from God?' For the sin of fornication regarding the body is as if you sin against the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit flees. This is not because the other sins lack direction—for all have a fall from the kingdom—but because in view of what lies ahead, he strove to make the fornication of all appear more severe, desiring to uproot the passion by cutting it off at the root, as sinning more impiously among the Corinthians; for entirely, he says, fornication is heard among you and the following. He who fornicates is also responsible for impiety, for having insulted his own body, he defiled the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And he says these things because some were fornicating contemptuously, regarding fornication as a small slip or no slip at all, not even remembering Moses in his Decalogue. But the salvation blood of Christ, which he gave as a ransom for us, is honor. Glorify therefore God not only in the gift but also in...

Regarding the body, so that both nature and choice and gift may glorify God. Indeed, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Do this not only in the gift but also in the body, so that both nature and choice and grace may glorify the Benefactor through harmony. Others, however, the spirit has taken the soul.

These things he wrote to the lot, for from him also it was written to the apostle. He forbade fornication as lawless, but he permitted the fellowship of marriage as godly and free from fornication, and he commended self-control as more perfect. He teaches that those joined in marriage master one another rather than themselves. It is a good debt to those living together, when they know to pay to one another as a debt according to this same harmony. The apostle used such an economical descent so as to cut off fornication, the worst disease, by teaching that those joined in marriage master one another rather than themselves.

Since he said they are to be slaves to one another, he follows this by saying that they ought not to deprive one another, unless it be according to godly harmony, so that they may not become causes of the fornication of others, nor destroy the mastery over one another by dividing against the wills of others. Sympathizing with the nature of the body, I say how you ought to come together again, since I do not altogether say this while excluding your self-control; for I wish all to be in self-control just as I am.

To the widows and to the unmarried men who have not practiced virginity, he advises practicing self-control; but if they were overcome by the flesh, let them marry, showing that self-control is great. However, he permits marriage as a good bond. Regarding the woman not separating from her husband, he was not speaking of those separating and returning to Christ. Or let her be reconciled to her husband, or let her remain unmarried, as is shown concerning those dividing because of some strife. Above, concerning separation, he spoke of that through self-control; here, of that happening through contention. Then he said: Not I, but the Lord; for there is something which the apostle says from himself, but not all things the Lord says through himself. He says, however, that I command you now, what the Lord commanded in the Gospels concerning the married, having said what God...