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.