24. Brethren, let every man in the state in which he is called, continue in it with God.
25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful.
26. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.
27. Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
28. But if thou marry, thou hast not sinned: and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless, such will have trouble in the flesh; but I spare you.
29. But this I say, brethren, The time is short. It remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none;
30. And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
31. And they that use this world, as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passeth away.
32. But I would have you without anxious care. He that is unmarried, is anxious for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
33. But he that is married, is anxious for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.