“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.”
Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. — Sexual abstinence is permitted only when mutually agreed, temporary, and spiritually purposeful (devotion to prayer). The exception proves the rule: normal sexual relation is the default. The warning that Satan tempts through deprivation acknowledges both Satan's reality and the intensity of sexual desire. The return formula (palin homou ginesthe = come together again) is imperative, not optional, protecting the marriage against both infidelity and contempt.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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