20. Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called.
21. Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.
22. For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant.
23. You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.
24. Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.
25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.
26. I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is.
27. Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.
28. But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.
29. But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;