attraction

²⁴So may they guard you from an evil woman, and from the flattering tongue of the outsider. ²⁵Let not your heart desire her beauty; do not be captivated by her winks. ²⁶For the price of a prostitute is only one loaf. Yet the woman seizes the precious soul of a man. ²⁷Would a man be able to conceal fire in his bosom, so that his garments would not burn? ²⁸Or could he walk over burning coals, so that his feet would not be burned?

³For you, there should be no unnecessary adornment of the hair, or surrounding with gold, or the wearing of ornate clothing. ⁴Instead, you should be a hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptibility of a quiet and meek spirit, rich in the sight of God. ⁵For in this way, in past times also, holy women adorned themselves, hoping in God, being subject to their own husbands. ⁶For so Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You are her daughters, well-behaved and unafraid of any disturbance. ⁷Similarly, you husbands should live with them in accord with knowledge, bestowing honor on the female as the weaker vessel and as co-heirs of the life of grace, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

³For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, ⁴that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, ⁵not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God,

²⁴Do not judge according to appearances, but instead judge a just judgment.”

¹⁵Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away, with its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides unto eternity.

⁴May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.

¹⁸Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body.

¹If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal. ²And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing. ³And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing. ⁴Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. ⁵Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. ⁶Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

⁹Do you not know that the iniquitous will not possess the kingdom of God? Do not choose to wander astray. For neither fornicators, nor servants of idolatry, nor adulterers, ¹⁰nor the effeminate, nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.

¹⁰The thief does not come, except so that he may steal and slaughter and destroy. I have come so that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

²³Preserve your heart with all watchfulness, for life proceeds from this.

²²You shall not commit sexual acts with a male, in place of sexual intercourse with a female, for this is an abomination.

²⁶Because of this, God handed them over to shameful passions. For example, their females have exchanged the natural use of the body for a use which is against nature. ²⁷And similarly, the males also, abandoning the natural use of females, have burned in their desires for one another: males doing with males what is disgraceful, and receiving within themselves the recompense that necessarily results from their error.

⁹The Lord is not delaying his promise, as some imagine, but he does act patiently for your sake, not wanting anyone to perish, but wanting all to be turned back to penance.

²⁴For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, in order to be tempted by the devil. ²And when he had fasted for forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. ³And approaching, the tempter said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” ⁴And in response he said, “It has been written: ‘Not by bread alone shall man live, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” ⁵Then the devil took him up, into the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶and said to him: “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it has been written: ‘For he has given charge of you to his angels, and they shall take you into their hands, lest perhaps you may hurt your foot against a stone.’ ”

¹²For there are chaste persons who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are chaste persons who have been made so by men, and there are chaste persons who have made themselves chaste for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever is able to grasp this, let him grasp it.”

²⁴For this reason, I say to you, all things whatsoever that you ask for when praying: believe that you will receive them, and they will happen for you.