²⁵ Now concerning the virgins [of marriageable age] I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. ²⁶ I think then that because of the impending distress [that is, the pressure of the current trouble], 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 ^[a]unmarried? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you do marry, you have not sinned [in doing so]; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned [in doing so]. Yet those [who marry] will have troubles (special challenges) in this life, and I am trying to spare you that. ²⁹ But I say this, believers: the ^[b]time has been shortened, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they did not; ³⁰ and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess [anything]; ³¹ and those who use the world [taking advantage of its opportunities], as though they did not make full use of it. For the outward form of this world [its present social and material nature] is passing away.