Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 7:5

"Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency." — 1 Corinthians 7:5 (ASV)

Except it be . . . that you may give yourselves—i.e., that you may have leisure. Any such separation should be temporary, and with the consent of both parties. Even then, it must not be from mere caprice, but for some religious purpose, such as a special season of prayer (1 Samuel 21:4).

The alteration in the Greek text of the word “give” into the present tense, so as to make the word “prayer” refer to daily devotions and not to special and exceptional seasons, and the interpolation of the word “fasting”—not found in the older manuscripts—are a striking example of how the ascetic tendencies of a particular ecclesiastical school of thought led them to “amend” the sacred text to make it harmonize with their own views, instead of reverently regarding it as that by which those very views should be corrected.

And come together again.—Better (as in the best manuscripts), and be together again. This is still an explanation of the purpose of the separation: it is not to be a lasting one, but so that we may again return to the state of union. The text here bears further traces of having been altered so as to make it seem that the Apostle meant that the return to matrimonial life should be only to a temporary union, and not to a continuous state of life. The proper reading implies the latter, with the word “be” being used as in Acts 2:44.

For your incontinency.—Better, because of your incontinency; the reference being, as in 1 Corinthians 7:2, to the moral condition surrounding them and to the influence to which a man thus separated would be subject. The Corinthian Christians are here solemnly reminded that this sin, as all sin, is from Satan—because the Corinthians at large did not regard it as sin at all, but even mingled sensuality with worship.