Dual Panel1NOW AS to the matters of which you wrote me. It is well [and by that I mean advantageous, expedient, profitable, and wholesome] for a man not to touch a woman [to cohabit with her] {but} to remain unmarried.
2But because of the temptation to impurity {and} to avoid immorality, let each [man] have his own wife and let each [woman] have her own husband.
3The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights (goodwill, kindness, and what is due her as his wife), and likewise the wife to her husband.
4For the wife does not have [exclusive] authority {and} control over her own body, but the husband [has his rights]; likewise also the husband does not have [exclusive] authority {and} control over his body, but the wife [has her rights].
5Do not refuse {and} deprive {and} defraud each other [of your due marital rights], except perhaps by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves unhindered to prayer. But afterwards resume marital relations, lest Satan tempt you [to sin] through your lack of restraint of sexual desire.
6But I am saying this more as a matter of permission {and} concession, not as a command {or} regulation.
7I wish that all men were like I myself am [in this matter of self-control]. But each has his own special gift from God, one of this kind and one of another.
8But to the unmarried people and to the widows, I declare that it is well (good, advantageous, expedient, and wholesome) for them to remain [single] even as I do.
9But if they have not self-control (restraint of their passions), they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame [with passion and tortured continually with ungratified desire].
10But to the married people I give charge--not I but the Lord--that the wife is not to separate from her husband.
11But if she does [separate from and divorce him], let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband. And [I charge] the husband [also] that he should not put away {or} divorce his wife.
12To the rest I declare--I, not the Lord [for Jesus did not discuss this]--that if any brother has a wife who does not believe [in Christ] and she consents to live with him, he should not leave {or} divorce her.
13And if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she should not leave {or} divorce him.
14For the unbelieving husband is set apart (separated, withdrawn from heathen contamination, and affiliated with the Christian people) by union with his consecrated (set-apart) wife, and the unbelieving wife is set apart {and} separated through union with her consecrated husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean (unblessed heathen, outside the Christian covenant), but as it is they are prepared for God [pure and clean].
15But if the unbelieving partner [actually] leaves, let him do so; in such [cases the remaining] brother or sister is not morally bound. But God has called us to peace.
16For, wife, how can you be sure of converting {and} saving your husband? Husband, how can you be sure of converting {and} saving your wife?
17Only, let each one [seek to conduct himself and regulate his affairs so as to] lead the life which the Lord has allotted {and} imparted to him and to which God has invited {and} summoned him. This is my order in all the churches.
18Was anyone at the time of his summons [from God] already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the evidence of circumcision. Was anyone at the time [God] called him uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised.
19For circumcision is nothing {and} counts for nothing, neither does uncircumcision, but [what counts is] keeping the commandments of God.
20Everyone should remain after God calls him in the station {or} condition of life in which the summons found him.
21Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. But if you are able to gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.
22For he who as a slave was summoned in [to union with] the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just so he who was free when he was called is a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah).
23You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ].
24So, brethren, in whatever station {or} state {or} condition of life each one was when he was called, there let him continue with {and} close to God.
25Now 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.
26I 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.
27Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
28But 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.
29I 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,
30And 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,
31And 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.
32My 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;
33But the married man is anxious about worldly matters--how he may please his wife--
34And 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.
35Now 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.
36But 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.
37But 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.
38So 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.
39A 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.
40But 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.