Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³² I want your minds to be free. The man who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord. He tries to please the Lord.

³³ But the man who is married thinks about the things of this world. He tries to please his wife.

³⁴ In the same way, there is a difference between the woman who is married and the one who is not. The woman who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord. She wants her body and her spirit to be holy. But the married woman thinks about the things of this life. She tries to please her husband.

³⁵ I say this to help you, not to make it hard for you. I want to show you what is good. I do not want anything to stop you from serving the Lord.

³⁶ And if a man feels that he is doing the right thing for the woman he is to marry, then let him marry her. That is, if she is no longer young, and if he wants her very much. Then he must do as he thinks best. It is not wrong for him to do it.

³⁷ But the man who has made up his mind not to marry his woman will do well. That is, if he does not have to marry her, and is able to control himself, and if he is sure about it in his own mind.

³⁸ So the man who marries his woman will do what is good. But the man who does not marry her will do better.

³⁹ A wife may not leave her husband as long as he is living. But if he dies, she is free to marry any man she wants. Only this, he must be a Christian.

⁴⁰ But I think that she is happier if she stays as she is and does not marry again. (I think too that I am saying what the Spirit of God wants me to say in this matter.)