About the Unmarried and Widows

²⁵ Now about virgins:^[a] I have no command from the Lord, but I do give an opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy^(A) is faithful.^{(B) 26} Because of the present distress, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. ²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ However, if you do get married,^(C) you have not sinned, and if a virgin^[b] marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have trouble in this life,^[c] and I am trying to spare you.

²⁹ This is what I mean, brothers and sisters: The time is limited,^(D) so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, ³⁰ those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice^(E) as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn’t own anything, ³¹ and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away.^(F)

³² I want you to be without concerns. The unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord—how he may please^(G) the Lord. ³³ But the married man is concerned about the things of the world—how he may please his wife— ³⁴ and his interests are divided. The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord,^(H) so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. ³⁵ I am saying this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is proper and so that you may be devoted to the Lord without distraction.

³⁶ If any man thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, if she is getting beyond the usual age for marriage, and he feels he should marry—he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married. ³⁷ But he who stands firm in his heart (who is under no compulsion, but has control over his own will^(I)) and has decided in his heart to keep her as his fiancée, will do well. ³⁸ So, then, he who marries his fiancée does well, but he who does not marry will do better.^[d]

³⁹ A wife is bound^[e] as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wants—only in the Lord. ⁴⁰ But she is happier if she remains as she is, in my opinion. And I think that I also have the Spirit of God.