6. I tell you this not as an order, but simply as a concession.
7. Actually I would prefer that all of you were as I am; but each one has a special gift from God, one person this gift, another one that gift.
8. Now, to the unmarried and to the widows I say that it would be better for you to continue to live alone as I do.
9. But if you cannot restrain your desires, go ahead and marry — it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
10. For married people I have a command which is not my own but the Lord's: a wife must not leave her husband;
11. but if she does, she must remain single or else be reconciled to her husband; and a husband must not divorce his wife.
12. To the others I say (I, myself, not the Lord): if a Christian man has a wife who is an unbeliever and she agrees to go on living with him, he must not divorce her.
13. And if a Christian woman is married to a man who is an unbeliever and he agrees to go on living with her, she must not divorce him.
14. For the unbelieving husband is made acceptable to God by being united to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made acceptable to God by being united to her Christian husband. If this were not so, their children would be like pagan children; but as it is, they are acceptable to God.