| 1 Corinthians 7:5-6 5 Do not deprive each other of your body, except by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and then resume relations so that Satan cannot tempt you because of your lack of self-control. [If you independently, (without mutual consent), withhold sexual relations with your spouse, you risk major alienation of your spouse. If you hear a command to cease sexual relations, and your spouse does not agree, the command is not from the Lord; instead, it is the devil hoping to cause you anguish, your loss of confidence, and even the dissolution of your marriage. Like Mat 17:21 and Mark 9:29, in this verse earlier manuscripts read prayer only, but scribes in later manuscripts added the word fasting, making it fasting and prayer instead.] 6 But I speak this as a concession, and not as a commandment. | |||||||||