21. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.
22. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's free-man: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.
23. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
24. Brethren, let every man in the state in which he is called, continue in it with God.
25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful.
26. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.
27. Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
28. But if thou marry, thou hast not sinned: and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless, such will have trouble in the flesh; but I spare you.
29. But this I say, brethren, The time is short. It remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none;
30. And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;