²⁶ Because of the present crisis,^[a] I think it is best to remain as you are.

⁸ So I say to those who aren’t married and to widows—it’s better to stay unmarried, just as I am.

Instruction on Marriage

7 Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter. Yes, it is good to abstain from sexual relations.^[a]

¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?

³⁵ I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.

³⁶ But if a man thinks that he’s treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes. It is not a sin. ³⁷ But if he has decided firmly not to marry and there is no urgency and he can control his passion, he does well not to marry. ³⁸ So the person who marries his fiancée does well, and the person who doesn’t marry does even better.

²⁸ But if you do get married, it is not a sin. And if a young woman gets married, it is not a sin. However, those who get married at this time will have troubles, and I am trying to spare you those problems.

²⁸ But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹ For the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.’

²³ How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people.

¹⁹ How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days.

² “Do not get married or have children in this place. ³ For this is what the Lord says about the children born here in this city and about their mothers and fathers: ⁴ They will die from terrible diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like manure. They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals.”