Book of Common Prayer

²⁵ Concerning virgins I have no commandment from the Lord, yet I give counsel as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful. ²⁶ I suppose that it is good for the present necessity. For it is good for a man so to be.

²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Seek not to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you take a wife, you do not sin. Likewise, if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Nevertheless, the married will have trouble in their flesh. But I make allowance for you.

²⁹ This I say, brethren: the time is short. It remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none, ³⁰ and those who weep should be as though they wept not, and those who rejoice should be as though they did not rejoice. And those who buy should be as though they did not possess, ³¹ and those who are occupied in this world should be as not consumed in it. For the fashion of this world is passing away.

²⁵ Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor yet for your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Behold the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they?

²⁷ Which of you, though he took thought for it, could add one cubit to his stature? ²⁸ Why worry then about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not labour or spin. ²⁹ And yet for all that, I say to you that even Solomon in all his royalty was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Therefore if God so clothes the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow will be cast into the furnace, will he not much more do the same for you, O ye of little faith?

³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What will we eat? or, What will we drink? or, How will we be clothed? ³² After all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. ³³ But rather seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all these things will be ministered unto you.

³⁴ Care not then for the morrow, but let the morrow care for itself. For the present day has ever enough of its own trouble.