Soul Ties and Unhealthy Bonds

²⁴For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

¹After David had finished speaking with Saul, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and Jonathan loved him as himself. ²And from that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father’s house. ³Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. ⁴And Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt. ⁵So David marched out and prospered in everything Saul sent him to do, and Saul set him over the men of war. And this was pleasing in the sight of all the people, and of Saul’s officers as well.

²⁰He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

¹²“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. ¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

¹⁴Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? ¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” ¹⁷“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” ¹⁸And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

²¹Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. ²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her ²⁶to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. ³⁰For we are members of His body. ³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³²This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. ³³Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight, ²that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. ³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, ⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. ⁶She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. ⁷So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. ⁸Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, ⁹lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; ¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. ¹¹At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, ¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. ¹⁴I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.” ¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. ¹⁶Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? ¹⁷Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. ¹⁸May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: ¹⁹A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever. ²⁰Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths. ²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. ²³He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

²⁴Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, ²⁵or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

³⁴Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ ³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

⁴Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

¹²This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ¹⁷This is My command to you: Love one another.

⁹Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another. ¹¹Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹²Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer. ¹³Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality. ¹⁴Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.

⁹I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. ¹²What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

¹⁰Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another. ²⁶“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need. ²⁹Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

¹²Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity. ¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.

²²Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

¹After David had finished speaking with Saul, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and Jonathan loved him as himself. ²And from that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father’s house. ³Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. ⁴And Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

¹⁶Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. ¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

¹It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.