Book of Common Prayer

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.

¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasure on earth. Moths and rust will eat it away, and robbers will break in and steal it. ²⁰ No: store up for yourselves treasure in heaven! Moths and rust don’t eat it away there, and no robbers break in and steal it. ²¹ Show me your treasure, and I’ll show you where your heart is.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is honest and clear, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eye is evil, your whole body is in the dark. So, if the light within you turns out to be darkness, darkness doesn’t come any darker than that.

²⁴ “Nobody can serve two masters. Otherwise, they will either hate the first and love the second, or be devoted to the first and despise the second. You can’t serve both God and wealth.”