“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #63
“Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment” (1 Cor. 7:5-6).
Paul requires an ongoing sexual relationship for married couples, assuming that it is an essential aspect of the married life. He allows one exception, and that exception would consist of a short sexual fast, agreed upon by mutual consent, and coupled with a season of prayer and fasting from food. Trying to go beyond this short period is to set yourselves up for sexual temptations from Satan. In this statement, Paul is allowing for short sexual fasts, and not requiring them.
It is striking that Paul describes sexual abstinence in marriage that does not fit this description here as a species of fraud. When a husband or wife pulls away from their spouse sexually, outside this kind of situation, that person is stealing. Bitterness, grievances, resentments, and so on, do not give a person grounds for fraud. If a man is bitter against his neighbor, this does not provide grounds for sneaking over in the middle of the night and taking his stuff, or running a fraudulent scam operation against him. In the same way, and for the same reasons, husbands and wives do not have the right to go on strike. If grievous sin has made sexual relations impossible—as does happen—then it is time for divorce.