Old/New Testament

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.

On remaining unmarried

²⁵ Now when it comes to unmarried people, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as (thanks to the Lord’s mercy!) a trustworthy person. ²⁶ This, then, is what I think is for the best: just at the moment we are in the middle of a very difficult time, and it’s best for people to remain as they are. ²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Don’t try to dissolve the marriage. Have you had your marriage dissolved? Don’t look for another wife. ²⁸ But if you do marry, you are not sinning, and if an unmarried woman marries, she is not sinning. But people who go that way will have trouble at a human level, and I would prefer to spare you that.

²⁹ This is what I mean, my brothers and sisters. The present situation won’t last long; for the moment, let those who have wives live as though they weren’t married, ³⁰ those who weep as though they were not weeping, those who celebrate as though they were not celebrating, those who buy as though they had no possessions, ³¹ those who use the world as though they were not making use of it. The pattern of this world, you see, is passing away.

Divided loyalties

³² I want you to be free from worries. The unmarried man worries about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord; ³³ but the married man worries about the things of the world, in other words, how to please his wife— ³⁴ and he is pulled in both directions. So too the unmarried woman or girl worries about the things of the Lord, how to be holy both in body and spirit; but the married woman worries about the things of the world, in other words, how to please her husband.

³⁵ I’m saying this for your own benefit. I’m not placing restrictions on you; my aim is that nothing will get in the way of your appropriate behavior and steady devotion to the Lord.

³⁶ If anyone thinks he is behaving improperly towards his fiancée—if he finds the situation overly stressful, and matters reach a point of necessity—then let him do as he wishes, he won’t be sinning: let them marry. ³⁷ But the man who settles it firmly in his heart and is not under necessity, but in control of his own will, and has made his judgment in his own heart to keep her as his fiancée, will do well. ³⁸ So the one who marries his fiancée will do well; and the one who holds back from marrying will do better.

³⁹ A woman is bound in marriage as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies she is free to marry anyone she likes, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰ But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think I too have the spirit of God.