Concerning the unmarried

Now concerning the virgins (the marriageable maidens)
I have no command of the Lord,
but I give my opinion and advice as one who by the Lord’s mercy
is rendered trustworthy and faithful.

I think then, because of the impending distress [that is even now setting in],
it is well (expedient, profitable, and wholesome) for a person to remain as he or she is.

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free.
Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

But if you do marry, you do not sin [in doing so],
and if a virgin marries, she does not sin [in doing so].
Yet those who marry will have physical and earthly troubles,
and I would like to spare you that.

I mean, brethren, the appointed time has been winding down
and it has grown very short.
From now on, let even those who have wives be as if they had none,

And those who weep and mourn as though they were not weeping and mourning,
and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing,
and those who buy as though they did not possess anything,

And those who deal with this world [overusing the enjoyments of this life]
as though they were not absorbed by it and as if they had no dealings with it.
For the outward form of this world (the present world order) is passing away.

My desire is to have you free from all anxiety and distressing care.
The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord
how he may please the Lord;

But the married man is anxious about worldly matters
how he may please his wife

And he is drawn in diverging directions
[his interests are divided and he is distracted from his devotion to God].
And the unmarried woman or girl is concerned and anxious about the matters of the Lord,
how to be wholly separated and set apart in body and spirit;
but the married woman has her cares [centered] in earthly affairs
how she may please her husband.

Now I say this for your own welfare and profit,
not to put [a halter of] restraint upon you,
but to promote what is seemly and in good order
and to secure your undistracted and undivided devotion to the Lord.

But if any man thinks that he is not acting properly toward
and in regard to his virgin [that he is preparing disgrace for her or incurring reproach],
in case she is passing the bloom of her youth and if there is need for it,
let him do what to him seems right; he does not sin; let them marry.

But whoever is firmly established in his heart [strong in mind and purpose],
not being forced by necessity but having control over his own will and desire,
and has resolved this in his heart to keep his own virginity, he is doing well.

So also then, he [the father] who gives his virgin (his daughter) in marriage does well,
and he [the father] who does not give [her] in marriage does better.

A wife is bound to her husband by law as long as he lives.
If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she will,
only [provided that he too is] in the Lord.

But in my opinion [a widow] is happier (more blessed and to be envied)
if she does not remarry. And also I think I have the Spirit of God.