²⁶ I think that in view of the present^[a] distress ^(A)it is good for a person to remain as he is. ²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman^[b] marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. ²⁹ This is what I mean, brothers: ^(B)the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, ³⁰ and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy ^(C)as though they had no goods, ³¹ and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For ^(D)the present form of this world is passing away.

³² I want you to be ^(E)free from anxieties. ^(F)The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.