16. How can you be sure, Christian wife, that you will not save your husband? Or how can you be sure, Christian husband, that you will not save your wife?
17. Each of you should go on living according to the Lord's gift to you, and as you were when God called you. This is the rule I teach in all the churches.
18. If a circumcised man has accepted God's call, he should not try to remove the marks of circumcision; if an uncircumcised man has accepted God's call, he should not get circumcised.
19. For whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing; what matters is to obey God's commandments.
20. Each of you should remain as you were when you accepted God's call.
21. Were you a slave when God called you? Well, never mind; but if you have a chance to become free, use it.
22. For a slave who has been called by the Lord is free for the Lord; in the same way a free person who has been called by Christ is his slave.
23. God bought you for a price; so do not become slaves of human beings.
24. My friends, each of you should remain in fellowship with God in the same condition as you were when you were called.
25. Now, concerning what you wrote about unmarried people: I do not have a command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is worthy of trust.
26. Considering the present distress, I think it is better for a man to stay as he is.