\v 1 You wrote to me some questions about how married believers should live. Here is my answer. There may be times in which it is good to abstain from sleeping together in marriage.
\v 2 But people are tempted very often to be sexually immoral. So each husband should have his own wife, and each wife should have her own husband.
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\v 3 And each married believer should have the right to sleep with with his or her spouse.
\v 4 For the husband gives control of his body to his wife. And the wife gives control of her body to her husband.
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\v 5 So do not deprive one another of sleeping together, unless you both agree to abstain from it for a short period of time, so that you may pray. But after that time is over, come together again. Do not allow Satan to tempt you because you cannot control yourself.
\v 7 My example is before you: I am single, and sometimes I wish that each of you were single in order to serve God. But God gives many different gifts to his children; he makes some able to be married, and others to remain single.
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\v 8 To those of you who have never married and those whose husbands have died, I say that it would be good if you continue to be single, like me.
\v 9 But if it is hard for you to control yourself, you should get married. It is better for you to marry than to suffer from strong sexual desires.
\v 11 (But if she separates from her husband, she should not marry again, or else she should make peace with her husband.) And, "the husband should not divorce his wife."
\v 12 And I have this to say—and this is my advice, not the Lord's command—to you who have a wife who is not a believer: if she is content to stay with you, do not divorce her.
\v 13 And if you are a woman with a husband who does not believe, and if he is content to stay with you, do not divorce him.
\v 14 The unbelieving husband is set apart in a special way because the wife trusts in God. It is the same for an unbelieving woman with a husband who trusts in God. It is the same for your children: they are set apart in a special way to God, because one parent believes in Christ.
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\v 15 However, if the unbelieving spouse wants to leave you, you should let that person go. In this situation, the vow you took when you married is no longer binding on you. God has called us to peace.
\v 16 You do not know how God may work through the life you live before your unbelieving spouse. And you do not know whether your life may become a means by which God might save your husband or your wife.
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\v 17 We must live the life the Lord has assigned us to live, and to obey the call God gave us. This is the principle in all the churches.
\v 18 If a man was circumcised before he became a Christian, he should not try to remove those marks. If you were not circumcised when God saved you, you should not let anyone circumcise you.
\v 19 Circumcision or uncircumcision—these are not important to us. But what is important is that we obey what God commands us to do.
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\v 20 So continue to live and work as you did when God called you to trust in Christ.
\v 21 If you were a slave when God saved you, do not worry about it. Of course, if you have the chance to gain your freedom, take advantage of it and become free.
\v 22 This is because anyone who the Lord calls a slave is a free person because of the Lord. In the same way, you become God's slave when he calls you, even if you were never a slave to anyone.
\v 23 God bought you with the price of his Son; your freedom is precious. So do not become slaves of humans.
\v 24 Brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever you were when God called you, whether you were slave or free, remain in that same position.
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\v 25 Regarding the question about those who have never married, I will give my views, but I have no specific commandment from the Lord on this question. But you can have confidence in my reply because, by the Lord's mercy, he confirms my trustworthiness in these matters.
\v 26 Therefore, because of the difficult times that seem to be coming upon us all, I think it is good for you to remain as you were when God called you.
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\v 27 To you who are married, I say: do not seek to be freed from your vow.
\v 28 But to the men who are single, I say, if you marry, you have committed no sin. I give the same advice to the single women: if you get married, you have committed no sin. However, if you marry, you will find many troubles, so I advise you to remain single.
\v 29 This is what I mean about the time in which we are living, brothers and sisters: we have a short amount of time left. From now on those who are married will have to live as though they were not married, because of all the trouble that is coming.
\v 30 Those who are filled with grief should not cry. Those who rejoiced over some wonderful event, should have no joy on their faces. Those who spent money to buy something, should take no delight in it; they should live as if they owned nothing.
\v 31 And those who deal with unbelievers should live as if they had nothing to do with them anymore. For this world system is about to crumble into nothing.
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\v 32 I want you to be free from things to worry about. As you see, the unmarried man is concerned about the matters that are important to the Lord. He wants to serve the Lord and do what he wants.
\v 33 But the man who is married must also concern himself for the day to day matters of the world as well as serving and pleasing his wife.
\v 34 Those who are married have two kinds of concern that are pulling against each other. It is the same with widows and girls who have not married: as believing women, they are concerned to spend their time serving the Lord. They are thinking about how to live in the way that God has set them apart for himself. But married women are also concerned about the matters of the world that touch everyone else also. And in addition to that concern, they also want to please their husbands.
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\v 35 I tell you this to help you. I do not want to give you any command. If you follow my advice, you will find it easier to serve the Lord without worrying about things that married people worry about.
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\v 36 If a man has promised to marry a woman, but if he finds he is not treating her with respect because of his sexual desires, he should get married. This is not a sin.
\v 37 But if he has decided that he does not desire to marry at the present time, and if he can control his sexual desires, he makes a good decision not to marry.
\v 38 So the one who marries his fiancée does a good thing and does not sin; and the one who chooses not to marry also chooses something even better.
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\v 39 A woman must remain with her husband as long as he lives; if her husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she wishes, but she must marry only someone who has faith in the Lord.
\v 40 However, it is my judgment that a widow will be happier if she does not marry again. And I think that I, too, have the Spirit of God.
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