First Corinthians 7:6 is Paul clarifying that the advice he has just given about married couples abstaining from sex for a short season is a permission, not a command. He is telling the Corinthian believers that they may choose this arrangement for prayer and self-control, but he is not requiring it of them. Paul wrote this letter to the church he had planted in Corinth, a busy port city, and he is answering questions the believers had sent him about marriage, singleness and daily Christian living.
But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment.
1 Corinthians 7:6 (WEB)
What 1 Corinthians 7:6 Means
The key word is “concession.” Paul is granting something, giving room, rather than laying down a rule. In the verses just before, he has said that spouses should not withhold themselves from each other, with one exception: a mutually agreed pause, for a limited time, so that they can devote themselves to fasting and prayer. Verse 6 makes clear that this pause is an allowance Paul is offering. He is not telling every couple they must do it.
The verse does not promise that prayer will be sharper or that anyone will be spiritually rewarded for taking a break. It also does not give couples a license to step away from one another without consent. Paul stresses the mutual agreement and the time limit in the verses around it. What verse 6 does is name the status of the whole arrangement: it is an option within a framework of care, not a religious requirement.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 7:6
The letter is traditionally attributed to Paul, and it was written to a church dealing with divisions, moral confusion and a number of practical questions. Chapter 7 begins with “Now concerning the things about which you wrote,” which tells us Paul is answering a list of questions sent to him. Many interpreters understand some Corinthians to have taken a strongly ascetic line on sex, perhaps even treating celibacy as the higher spiritual state. Paul’s guidance in verses 1 through 9 pushes back against both sexual immorality and any pressure to abandon marriage.
Read against verses 3 through 5, verse 6 is a careful qualifier. Right after it, in verse 7, Paul says he wishes everyone were free from the pressures of marriage as he is, but acknowledges that each person has a gift from God. Seeing verse 6 in that sequence helps us hear it as a pastor balancing principle with pastoral realism, not as a loose endorsement of whatever a couple might prefer.
Key Phrases in 1 Corinthians 7:6
1 Corinthians 7:5
Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
(WEB)
This verse is the one 7:6 directly qualifies. Verse 5 sets out the principle that couples should not deprive one another, with the single exception of mutual consent for a short season of prayer. Reading the two together shows that the concession in verse 6 refers specifically to that exception, not to a general loosening of the marriage bond.
1 Corinthians 7:7
Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.
(WEB)
In the verse that follows, Paul admits that his own single state is a gift and that each person receives a gift from God in their own way. This helps readers see that verse 6 is one part of a larger conversation about how different callings and gifts shape the choices believers make about marriage and singleness.
A Short Prayer From 1 Corinthians 7:6
Father, thank you for the wisdom you give through your word and for the freedom you extend to us within it. Help my spouse and me to hold our life together with honesty and care, and to make decisions with each other rather than around each other. Where we feel pressure to follow someone else’s pattern, give us clarity to hear your voice. Keep our hearts gentle and our commitment steady. Amen.
