1 Corinthians 7:5

1 Corinthians 7:5-7 . Defraud not — Or deprive not; one the other — Of this benevolence; or withdraw not from the company of each other; except it be with consent for a time, that — On those special and solemn occasions, you may entirely give yourselves up to the exercises of devotion. From this passage it appears, that, in the first age, when married persons parted for a time to employ themselves in the duties of devotion, they lived in separate habitations, or rather in different parts of their own house. For in the eastern countries the houses were so built, that the women had apartments allotted to themselves. And come together again — As usual, and do not continue the separation too long; that Satan tempt you not — To unclean thoughts, if not actions too, which he probably might do, if you should long remain separate from each other; for your incontinency — The word ακρασια , thus translated, properly signifies, the want of the government of one’s passions and appetites. It is properly observed here by Dr. Macknight, “that marriage being an affair of the greatest importance to society, it was absolutely necessary that its obligation and duties, as well as the obligation and duties of the other relations of life, should be declared by inspiration in the Scriptures.

This passage, therefore, of the word of God ought to be read with due reverence, both because it was dictated by the Holy Spirit, and because throughout the whole of his discourse the apostle has used the greatest chastity and delicacy of expression.” But I speak this — That which I have said, for the preventing of incontinency, both in the unmarried, ( 1 Corinthians 7:2 ,) and married, ( 1 Corinthians 7:5 ,) by permission — From Christ, to leave you to your liberty therein, if you have the gift of continency. Or, as an advice, as some render κατα συγγνωμην . Bengelius says the word denotes an opinion, rightly suited to the state or disposition of another. And not of commandment — Not as an injunction. Or, as some commentators suppose, he may refer to what follows. For I would that all men — All the disciples of Christ who are unmarried, and can live chastely, were even as I myself — That is, would remain eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake; or, that they could as easily bear the restraints of a single life in present circumstances, and exercise as resolute a command over their natural desires. Paul, having tasted the sweetness of this liberty, wished others to enjoy it as well as himself. But every man hath his proper gift of God — According to our Lord’s declaration, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given, Matthew 19:11 .

Defraud ye not one the other, {4} except it be with consent for a time, that ye may {d} give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. (4) He adds an exception: unless the one abstain from the other by mutual consent, that they may the better give themselves to prayer, in which nonetheless he warns them to consider what is expedient, lest by this long breaking off as it were from marriage, they are stirred up to incontinency. (d) Do nothing else.

(5) Except it be . . . that ye may give yourselves — i.e., that ye may have leisure. Any such separation should be temporary, and with consent of both parties. Even then it must not be from mere caprice, but for some religious purpose, such as a special season of prayer. (See Exodus 19:15 ; 1Samuel 21:4 .) The alteration in the Greek text of the word “give ” into the present tense, so as to make the word “prayer” refer to daily devotions, and not to special and exceptional seasons, and the interpolation of the word “fasting”—not found in the older MSS.—are a striking example of how the ascetic tendencies of a particular ecclesiastical school of thought led to their “amending” the sacred text so as to make it be in harmony with their own views, instead of reverently regarding it as that by which those very views should be corrected. And come together again.—Better (as in the best MSS.), and be together again. This is still an explanation of the purpose of the separation, not to be a lasting one, but that we may again return to the state of union. The text here bears further traces of having been altered so as to make it seem that the Apostle meant that the return to matrimonial life should be only to a temporary union, and not to a continuous state of life. The proper reading implies the latter, the word “be” being used as in Acts 2:44.

For your incontinency.—Better, because of your incontinency; the reference being, as in 1Corinthians 7:2, to the moral condition surrounding them, and to the influence to which a man thus separated would be subject. The Corinthian Christians are here solemnly reminded that this sin, as all sin, is from Satan—because the Corinthians at large did not regard it as sin at all, but even mingled sensuality with worship.

1 Corinthians 7:5 . Μὴ ἀποστερεῖτε , defraud not ) So the LXX., Exodus 21:10 , he shall not defraud her of her duty of marriage , τὴν ὁμιλίαν αὐτῆς ( ענתה ) οὐκ ἀποστερήσει . This word agrees with the word due, 1 Corinthians 7:3 .— εἰ μή τι ἄν , except it be) It is very much limited. When these conditions occur, it is not privation, but abstinence.— ἵνα σχολάζητε , that you may be at leisure) The apostle speaks here of great leisure, σχολὴν , and ease. Previous abstinence is subservient to prayer. [Those who fasted among the Greeks added here fasting.—Not. crit.[57]]. Abstinence may also have other motives originating it [besides the object of prayer], and those of a bad kind.— καὶ πὰλιν , and again ) Concerning such intervals, and their measure, see Selden on the Hebrew wife.— ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ , together ) This does not mean the very act of connubial intercourse, but is opposed to the previous separation.— πειράζῃ , should tempt ) to fornication, etc., 1 Corinthians 7:2 .— ὁ Σατανᾶς , Satan ) who amid the exercises of the sublimer virtues seeks an opportunity of doing the greatest injury. Temptation cannot be easily presupposed without Satan.— ἀκρασίαν , incontinency ) 1 Corinthians 7:9 . [57] Rec. Text inserts before τῇ προσευχῇ the words τῇ νηστείαò καὶ with both Syr. Versions. But ABCD( Λ )G fg Vulg. Orig. Cypr. omit the words.—ED.

Verse 5. - Defraud ye not. St. Paul purposely leaves the expression general. Primarily he is thinking of "the due" or "the power" which each has over the other, as is shown by the next verse; but he does not confine the expression to this. Except it be; literally, unless by chance. The exception he regards as something possible, but not normal. For a time. By this and the next words he disparages, by anticipation, the celibate and separate married lives which, in a corrupt age, were so much and so unwisely admired in the ascetic saints of the Middle Ages. Temporary separation for special reasons had been recognized from the earliest times ( Exodus 19:15 ; 1 Samuel 21:4 ). Ye may give yourselves; rather, ye may have leisure. The verb is in the aorist, which shows that the "leisure" contemplated was for brief periods, not during continuous years. It was altered to the present by the officious copyists, who believed in external and mechanical rules of holiness. To fasting and prayer. "Fasting" is an ascetic interpolation, not found in א , A, B, C, D, F. On this interpolation, and perhaps on the analogy of the rule given by Moses at Sinai ( Exodus 19:15 ), rose the practice of married persons living apart at Lent (Stanley). Come together again. The prepossessions of ascetic scribes have again tampered with the text. The true reading is, "be together again" ( ῆτε ), not "come together" ( συνέρχησθε ) . For your incontinency; rather, because of.

Their past lives and their present temptations were a warning that they could not lay on themselves burdens which God did not require. They should not strive "...to wind themsleves to highFor sinful man beneath the sky." Violent, unnatural, self tormenting, repressions beyond what God demands, and adopted without reference to the strength or the circumstances of individual natures, only tend, as all ascetics have confessed, to increase rather than to diminish the force of sensual temptations. 1 Corinthians 7:5

5. Defraud … not—namely, of the conjugal duty "due" (1Co 7:3; compare the Septuagint, Ex 21:10). except it be—"unless perchance" [Alford]. give yourselves to—literally, "be at leisure for"; be free from interruptions for; namely, on some special "season," as the Greek for "time" means (compare Ex 19:15; Joe 2:16; Zec 7:3). fasting and prayer—The oldest manuscripts omit "fasting and"; an interpolation, evidently, of ascetics. come together—The oldest manuscripts read, "be together," namely, in the regular state of the married. Satan—who often thrusts in his temptations to unholy thoughts amidst the holiest exercises. for your incontinency—because of your inability to "contain" (1Co 7:9) your natural propensities, which Satan would take advantage of.

Defraud not one the other; that is: Withhold not yourselves one from another; which he rightly calls defrauding one another, because he had before declared it a debt; and further declared, that neither the husband nor the wife had a power over their own bodies, but the power of either of their bodies was in their correlate. He adds, except it be with consent, mutual consent, and then it is indeed no defrauding; and for a time, for a religious end, that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer: not that this abstinence is necessary to us by any Divine precept, to prepare us for solemn prayer, (for such only is here spoken of), for then the apostle would not have made consent necessary in this case; but the Jews were commanded it, Exodus 19:15 , as a preparation to their hearing of the law; and it was a piece of the legal purification, as appeareth from 1 Samuel 21:4 , as to which Christians were at liberty, and might observe or not observe it, as they agreed. And come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency: then he requires, that they should return to their former course, not defrauding one another, lest the devil, observing their abstinence, should tempt them to unlawful mixtures, seeing their inability to contain themselves within the bounds of temperance and chastity.