Stop!

                Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 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. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. (Corinthians 7:1-7)

                       In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (Ephesians 5:8)

                There may not be any way for me to discuss this without offending someone. Being single, what can I possibly say about marriage, except what God inspired Paul to say. Sexual abstinence is a good thing, but because some folks can’t handle abstinence, Paul says a man and his own wife should engage in sex. And here comes the offense. It is a wife’s duty to have sex with her husband. She does not have authority over her own body. It’s not her body to do with as she likes.

               But Paul doesn’t stop there. It is the duty of the husband to have sex with is wife. He does not have authority over his body. It is not his body to do with as he likes. Is Paul condoning marital rape. Not at all. Paul also wrote the second passage for the day. I suspect, rather, that Paul was telling the Corinthian church to top using sex as a weapon. Neither sex, nor the withholding thereof, is to be done with the intent to hurt, harm, or control. It’s not meant to prove you’re a man or a woman. Outside of marriage, sex isn’t a bargaining chip or bait in a trap. 
                In fact, I think Paul’s admonition is even simpler than Pat Benatar’s. She sings “Stop using sex as a weapon.” I think Paul is saying, “Stop using sex.” Clearly, he doesn’t mean that husbands and wives should stop having sex (unless they decide together to do so) but that sex isn’t a tool that one wields unilaterally or selfishly.