Dual Panel1Now let me deal with the questions raised in your letter. It is a good principle for a man to have no physical contact with women.
2Nevertheless, because casual liaisons are so prevalent, let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband.
3The husband should give his wife what is due to her as his wife, and the wife should be as fair to her husband.
4The wife has no longer full rights over her own person, but shares them with her husband. In the same way the husband shares his personal rights with his wife.
5Do not cheat each other of normal sexual intercourse, unless of course you both decide to abstain temporarily to make special opportunity for prayer. But afterwards you should resume relations as before, or you will expose yourselves to the obvious temptation of Satan.
6I give the advice above more as a concession than as a command.
7I wish that all men were like myself, but I realize that everyone has his own particular gift from God, some one thing and some another,
8yet to those who are unmarried or widowed, I say definitely that it is a good thing to remain unattached, as I am.
9But if they have not the gift of selfcontrol in such matters, by all means let them get married. It is better for them to be married than to be tortured by unsatisfied desire.
10To those who are already married my command, or rather, the Lord's command, is that the wife should not be separated from her husband.
11But if she is separated from him she should either remain unattached or else be reconciled to her husband. A husband must not desert his wife.
12To other people my advice (though this is not a divine command) is this. If a brother has a nonChristian wife who is willing to live with him he should not leave her.
13A wife in a similar position should not leave her husband.
14For the unbelieving husband is consecrated by being joined to the person of his wife; the unbelieving wife is similarly consecrated by the Christian brother she has married. If this were not so then your children would bear the stains of paganism, whereas they are actually consecrated to God.
15But if the unbelieving partner decides to separate, then let there be a separation. The Christian partner need not consider himself bound in such cases. Yet God has called us to live in peace,
16and after all how can you, who are a wife, know whether you will be able to save your husband or not? And the same applies to you who are a husband.
17I merely add to the above that each man should live his life with the gifts that the Lord has given him and in the condition in which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.
18For example, if a man was circumcised when God called him he should not attempt to remove the signs of his circumcision. If on the other hand he was uncircumcised he should not become circumcised.
19Being circumcised or not being circumcised, what do they matter? The great thing is to obey the orders of God.
20Everyone should continue in the state in which he heard the call of God.
21Were you a slave when you heard the call? Don't let that worry you, though if you find an opportunity to become free you had batter take it.
22But a slave who is called to life in Christ is set free in the eyes of the Lord. Similarly a man who was free when God called him becomes a slaveto Christ himself!
23You have been redeemed, at tremendous cost; don't therefore sell yourselves as slaves to man!
24My brothers, let every one of us continue to live his life with God in the state in which he was when he was called.
25Now as far as young unmarried women are concerned, I must confess that I have no direct commands from the Lord. Nevertheless, I give you my considered opinion as of one who is, I think, to be trusted after an his experience of God's mercy.
26My opinion is this, that amid all the difficulties of the present time you would do best to remain just as you are.
27Are you married? Well, don't try to be separated. Are you separated? Then don't try to get married.
28But if you, a man, should marry, don't think that you have done anything sinful. And the same applies to a young woman. Yet I do believe that those who take this step are bound to find the married state an extra burden in these critical days, and I should like to spare you that.
29All our futures are so foreshortened, indeed, that those who have wives should live, so to speak, as though they had none!
30There is no time to indulge in sorrow, no time for enjoying our joys; those who buy have no time to enjoy their possessions,
31and indeed their every contact with the world must be as light as possible, for the present scheme of things is rapidly passing away.
32That is why I should like you to be free from worldly anxieties. The unmarried man is free to concern himself with the Lord's affairs, and how he may please him.
33But the married man is sure to be concerned also with matters of this world, that he may please his wifehis interests are divided.
34You find the same difference in the case of the unmarried and the married woman. The unmarried concerns herself with the Lord's affairs, and her aim in life is to make herself holy, in body and in spirit. But the married woman must concern herself with the things of this world, and her aim will be please her husband.
35I tell you these things to help you; I am not putting difficulties in your path but setting before you an ideal, so that your service of God may be as fat as possible free from worldly distractions.
36But if any man feels he is not behaving honourably towards the woman he loves, especially as she is beginning to lose her first youth and the emotional strain is considerable, let him do what his heart tells him to dolet them be married, there is no sin in that.
37Yet for the man of steadfast purpose who is able to bear the strain and has his own desires well under control, if he decides not to marry the young woman, he too will be doing the right thing.
38Both of them are right, one in choosing marriage and the other in refraining from marriage, but the latter has chosen the better of two right courses.
39A woman is bound to her husband while he is alive, but if he dies she is free to marry whom she likesbut let her be guided by the Lord.
40In my opinion she would be happier to remain as she is, unmarried. And I think I am here expressing not only my opinion, but the will of the Spirit as well