New Testament in a Year
20 Let each person stay in that calling in which he was called. 21 Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it bother you. But if you are able to become free, take advantage of it. 22 For the slave who was called to be in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person. Likewise, the free person who was called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men. 24 Brothers,[a] let each person remain before God in the situation he was in when he was called.
25 Now concerning virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one whom the Lord in his mercy made worthy of trust. 26 Accordingly, I think this is good because of the difficult situation we face,[b] namely, that it is good for a person to remain as he is. 27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be freed. Are you unattached? Do not seek a wife. 28 But if you do get married, you have not sinned, and if a virgin gets married, she has not sinned. Yet such people will be under pressure in their earthly lives, and I am trying to spare you.
29 I also say this, brothers: The time is short. From now on, let those who have wives live as if they have none; 30 those who weep, as if not weeping; those who rejoice, as if not rejoicing; those who buy, as if not possessing; 31 and those who use the world, as if not getting any use out of it. For the way of life that belongs to this world is passing away.
32 I would like you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord and thinks about how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is concerned about the things of the world and thinks about how to please his wife, 34 and so he is divided. The unmarried woman and the virgin are concerned about the things of the Lord, so as to be holy both in body and in spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the things of the world and thinks about how to please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own benefit, not to impose a restriction, but to encourage honorable, undistracted devotion to the Lord.
36 But if someone thinks he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin,[c] if his feelings are strong[d] and it seems necessary, he should do what he desires. It is not a sin. They should marry. 37 But if someone stands firm in his heart and is not driven by need, but has control over his own desire[e] and has decided in his own heart to keep his virgin as she is, he does well. 38 So then, he who marries his virgin[f] does well, and he who does not marry her[g] does better.
39 A wife[h] is bound to her husband for as long as he lives, but if the husband has died, she is free to be married to any man she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 But she is more blessed if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I too have God’s Spirit.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.