Tuesday, July 22, 2025

^6:20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. ^7:1Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. ²But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife her husband. ⁴The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife does. ⁵Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. ⁷Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind. ⁸But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. ⁹But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn with passion. ¹⁰But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband ¹¹(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife. ¹²But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.

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^14:1At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, ²and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptizer. He is risen from the dead. That is why these powers work in him.” ³For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. ⁴For John said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” ⁵When he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. ⁶But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced among them and pleased Herod. ⁷Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask. ⁸She, being prompted by her mother, said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptizer.” ⁹The king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths and of those who sat at the table with him, he commanded it to be given, ¹⁰and he sent and beheaded John in the prison. ¹¹His head was brought on a platter and given to the young lady; and she brought it to her mother. ¹²His disciples came, took the body, and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus. ¹³Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place apart. When the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities.

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