What Does 1 Corinthians 7:3 Mean in the King James?

Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

1 Corinthians 7:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The verse names marital intimacy as a mutual due: each spouse both renders and receives.

THE MEANING

Marital intimacy is spoken of as an obligation held in both directions: the husband renders it to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. Both spouses stand within the same exchange.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that one spouse alone is the giver while the other alone is entitled to receive.

THE ROOT

ὀφειλήν

opheilēn

GROWS FROM

ὀφειλ-

opheil-

To owe or be under obligation.

The same stem names debts and debtors elsewhere, giving “due” the concrete shape of what is owed. The immediate “likewise” places both spouses within that same reciprocal account.

ALSO GROWS

opheilétēs: Debtor; one who owes.

ὀφειλέτης

It names the person under an obligation, making the verse’s “due” relational rather than abstract.

opheílēma: Debt; what is owed.

ὀφείλημα

This related word-family branch reveals the account-like shade carried by “due.”

THE PATTERN

A shared bond holds each person in reciprocal regard rather than a one-way claim.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Genesis 2:24 · KJVThe joining is described as a shared life, placing husband and wife within one bond.

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Ephesians 5:21 · KJVThe phrase “one to another” makes regard reciprocal.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Philippians 2:4 · KJVThe verse turns attention beyond one’s own claim toward the other person.

THE THREAD

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Matthew 6:12 · KJV

The word translated “due” shares its Greek word family with “debts” and “debtors” here. The prayer shows that this same root can name what is owed and then released, while this verse uses obligation language for a mutual marital exchange.

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