1 Corinthians 7:10-24

New Testament for Everyone

¹⁰ I have a command, too, for married people—actually, it’s not just from me, it’s from the Lord: that a woman should not separate from her husband. ¹¹ If she does, she should remain unmarried or return to her husband. So, too, a man should not divorce his wife.

¹² To everyone else I have this to say (this is just me, not the Lord). If a Christian has an unbelieving wife, and she is happy to live with him, he shouldn’t divorce her. ¹³ If a woman has an unbelieving husband, and he is happy to live with her, she shouldn’t divorce him. ¹⁴ The unbelieving husband, you see, is made holy by his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by her husband; otherwise your children would be impure, whereas in fact they are holy. ¹⁵ But if the unbelieving partner wants to separate, let them separate; a brother or sister is not bound in a case like that. God has called you in peace. ¹⁶ If you’re a wife, how d’you know whether or not you will save your husband? If you’re a husband, how d’you know whether or not you will save your wife?

Stay the way you were called

¹⁷ This is the overriding rule: everyone should conduct their lives as the Lord appointed, as God has called them. This is what I lay down in all the churches. ¹⁸ If someone was circumcised when he was called, he shouldn’t try to remove the marks. If someone was uncircumcised when he was called, he shouldn’t get circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing; what matters is keeping God’s commandments!

²⁰ Everyone should stay within the calling they had when they were called. ²¹ Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t worry about it (but if you get the chance of freedom, seize it!). ²² The one who is in the Lord and called as a slave is the Lord’s freedman, just as the one who is called as a free person is the Messiah’s slave. ²³ You were bought at a high price; don’t become the slaves of human beings. ²⁴ So, brothers and sisters, let each person remain before God in the state in which they were called.