17. However, let each one walk just as the Lord has distributed to him, each one just as God has called him. And thus do I teach in all the churches.
18. Has any circumcised man been called? Let him not cover his circumcision. Has any uncircumcised man been called? Let him not be circumcised.
19. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; there is only the observance of the commandments of God.
20. Let each and every one remain in the same calling to which he was called.
21. Are you a servant who has been called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you ever have the ability to be free, make use of it.
22. For any servant who has been called in the Lord is free in the Lord. Similarly, any free person who has been called is a servant in Christ.
23. You have been bought with a price. Do not be willing to become the servants of men.
24. Brothers, let each one, in whatever state he was called, remain in that state with God.
25. Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord. But I give counsel, as one who has obtained the mercy of the Lord, so as to be faithful.
26. Therefore, I consider this to be good, because of the present necessity: that it is good for a man to be such as I am.
27. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be freed. Are you free of a wife? Do not seek a wife.
28. But if you take a wife, you have not sinned. And if a virgin has married, she has not sinned. Even so, such as these will have the tribulation of the flesh. But I would spare you from this.
29. And so, this is what I say, brothers: The time is short. What remains of it is such that: those who have wives should be as if they had none;
30. and those who weep, as though they were not weeping; and those who rejoice, as if they were not rejoicing; and those who buy, as if they possessed nothing;
31. and those who use the things of this world, as if they were not using them. For the figure of this world is passing away.
32. But I would prefer you to be without worry. Whoever is without a wife is worried about the things of the Lord, as to how he may please God.
33. But whoever is with a wife is worried about the things of the world, as to how he may please his wife. And so, he is divided.
34. And the unmarried woman and the virgin think about the things that are of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and in spirit. But she who is married thinks about the things that are of the world, as to how she may please her husband.
35. Furthermore, I am saying this for your own benefit, not in order to cast a snare over you, but toward whatever is honest and whatever may provide you with the ability to be without hindrance, so as to worship the Lord.
36. But if any man considers himself to seem dishonorable, concerning a virgin who is of adult age, and so it ought to be, he may do as he wills. If he marries her, he does not sin.