21. a servant--wast thou called? be not anxious; but if also thou art able to become free--use [it] rather;
22. for he who [is] in the Lord--having been called a servant--is the Lord's freedman: in like manner also he the freeman, having been called, is servant of Christ:
23. with a price ye were bought, become not servants of men;
24. each, in that in which he was called, brethren, in this let him remain with God.
25. And concerning the virgins, a command of the Lord I have not; and I give judgment as having obtained kindness from the Lord to be faithful:
26. I suppose, therefore, this to be good because of the present necessity, that [it is] good for a man that the matter be thus: --
27. Hast thou been bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; hast thou been loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
28. But and if thou mayest marry, thou didst not sin; and if the virgin may marry, she did not sin; and such shall have tribulation in the flesh: and I spare you.
29. And this I say, brethren, the time henceforth is having been shortened--that both those having wives may be as not having;
30. and those weeping, as not weeping; and those rejoicing, as not rejoicing; and those buying, as not possessing;
31. and those using this world, as not using [it] up; for passing away is the fashion of this world.
32. And I wish you to be without anxiety; the unmarried is anxious for the things of the Lord, how he shall please the Lord;
33. and the married is anxious for the things of the world, how he shall please the wife.
34. The wife and the virgin have been distinguished: the unmarried is anxious for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, and the married is anxious for the things of the world, how she shall please the husband.
35. And this for your own profit I say: not that I may cast a noose upon you, but for the seemliness and devotedness to the Lord, undistractedly,
36. and if any one doth think [it] to be unseemly to his virgin, if she may be beyond the bloom of age, and it ought so to be, what he willeth let him do; he doth not sin--let him marry.