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)