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;
31. And they that use this world, as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passeth away.
32. But I would have you without anxious care. He that is unmarried, is anxious for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
33. But he that is married, is anxious for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
34. There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman is anxious for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy, both in body and in spirit: but she that is married, is anxious for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
35. And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
36. But if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself uncomely towards his virgin, if she hath passed the flower of her age, and need so requireth, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.