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Were you tied to a harlot? Have you fallen into fornication? Do you want to repent? Do not add sin to sin and do not say to me: how can I live without fornication? I'll tell you how you can. Are you burning with passion? But you have a wife, and if you don’t have one, take her so that you can enjoy the pleasure with safety. But I can't resist? And this is already licentiousness. And if I point out to you another who does not have a wife but is celibate, what excuse or excuse will you offer? The one at sea does not suffer a wreck, but you are subject to a fall in the pier? Do you have a wife and commit fornication, or even more, commit adultery? But, you ask, how can I get rid of this wound? Your wife will help you with this. Will your wife help? Exactly. Listen to what Blessed Paul says: “To avoid fornication, each one have his own wife, and each one have her own husband... A wife has no power over her body, but a husband; likewise a husband has no power over his body, but a wife” (1 Cor. 7:2, 4). So, if a harlot calls you, apply this instruction to yourself and say: a husband has no power over his body, but a wife; write these words in your heart. and say to the harlot: Why are you calling me? This is not my body, but my wife's; I don't dare sell someone else's. I do not dare spend her dowry, I do not dare dispose of her property, I cannot desecrate the body that belongs to her. Is it so? I can't. Tell the harlot: Why are you calling me? Don't go near it: it's not mine, it's someone else's. Surely this body does not belong to a harlot? I do not accept the body of a harlot: this is the body of my wife. Fear Christ and say that our bodies are members of Christ. Let the wives hear this too; let them understand what Christ calls them to, of course, with the observance of holiness, and let them say: “the wife has no power over her body, but the husband.” Consider the wisdom contained in these words of Paul. In view of the fact that many abstain and have pure and chaste wives, moreover, they abstain beyond what is due, so that abstinence becomes a reason for adultery, in view of this he says: let everyone use his wife. And he is not ashamed, but enters and sits on the bed day and night, embraces husband and wife, and unites them to each other, and loudly cries out: “Do not turn away from each other, except by consent” (1 Cor. 7:5). Do you observe abstinence and do not want to sleep with your husband, and he does not take advantage of you? Then he leaves home and sins, and in the end his sin is caused by your abstinence. Let him sleep with you better than with a harlot. Cohabitation with you is not prohibited, but cohabitation with a harlot is prohibited. If he sleeps with you, there is no guilt; if with a harlot, then you have destroyed your own body. So, [the apostle] sits down almost on the marriage bed and cries out: “Do not deviate from each other, except by consent.” That's why you [wife] have a husband, and that's why you [husband] have a wife, to maintain chastity. Do you want to have abstinence? Convince your husband of this, so that there are two crowns - chastity and harmony, but so that there is no chastity and battle, so that there is no peace and war. After all, if you abstain, and your husband is inflamed with passion, and yet adultery is forbidden by the apostle, then he must endure storm and excitement. But “do not deviate from each other except by consent.” And, of course, where there is peace, there are all blessings; where there is peace, there chastity shines; where there is agreement, there abstinence is crowned; and where there is war, chastity is undermined. But do not deviate from each other, except by consent. Every steward of marriage is surpassed by Paul, the steward of the universe. Therefore, he is not ashamed to say: “Let marriage be honorable in all and the bed undefiled” (Heb. 13:4). After all, its Lord Himself came to the wedding, giving honor to the marriage with His presence, and even brought gifts, turning water into wine. So, strive [in abstinence] as much as you want; But when you become weak, take advantage of [marriage] fellowship, so that Satan does not tempt you. Here are three ways of life: virginity, marriage, fornication. Marriage is in the middle, fornication is below, virginity is above. Virginity is crowned, marriage is commended in proportion, fornication is condemned and punished. So, observe moderation in your abstinence, depending on how much you can curb the weakness of your flesh. Do not strive to exceed this measure, lest you fall below any measure. Just as someone who wants to dive goes as far into the water as he can go, but when he enters, he looks at how far he will have to return, so be chaste as much as you can bear, so as not to fall beyond measure (3). If any woman committed fornication under duress, then she is free from punishment. If a rich woman and a poor woman committed fornication, then here again there is a difference. This is revealed from what we said above about David. If anyone committed adultery after the coming of Christ and dies without receiving Baptism, he will be subjected to a more severe punishment than all those previously mentioned. Whether someone commits fornication after being washed by divine Baptism, there is no longer any consolation left for sin. And showing exactly this, Paul said: “If he who rejects the law of Moses, in the presence of two or three witnesses, is punished without mercy with death, how much more severe punishment do you think he will be subject to who tramples on the Son of God and does not consider as holy the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28, 29). If any priest has committed fornication today, this is especially the height of all evil. Do you see how many differences there are in the same sin? Another is a sin committed before the law, another is after the law, another is a sin committed by a priest, another is a sin committed by a rich and a poor woman, another is a sin committed by a catechumen and a faithful woman, another is a sin committed by a woman from the priestly family. Also, a great difference comes from understanding: “he who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will receive many stripes” (Luke 12:47). And the sin committed after such and so many examples receives greater punishment. Therefore, Christ said: “When they saw this, they did not repent afterward” (Matthew 21:32), although they were healed many times (7). He who gives to harlots becomes ridiculous and shameful; he will have many quarrels, but the pleasure will be short, or better yet, he will not even get a short one. No matter how much he gives to rejected women, they will not be at all grateful to him: a stranger’s house is a drilled vessel (Proverbs 23:27). Moreover, this race is shameless, and Solomon likened the love of such a woman to hell. She only calms down when she sees her lover no longer having anything. It’s better to say that even then she does not calm down, but she magnifies herself even more, tramples on the one lying down, betrays him to great ridicule and does him so much evil that it is impossible to describe (9). You might be interested in: