26 Considering the present distress, I think it is better for a man to stay as he is.
27 Have you got a wife? Then don't try to get rid of her. Are you unmarried? Then don't look for a wife.
28 But if you do marry, you haven't committed a sin; and if an unmarried woman marries, she hasn't committed a sin. But I would rather spare you the everyday troubles that married people will have.
29 What I mean, my friends, is this: there is not much time left, and from now on married men should live as though they were not married;
30 those who weep, as though they were not sad; those who laugh, as though they were not happy; those who buy, as though they did not own what they bought;
31 those who deal in material goods, as though they were not fully occupied with them. For this world, as it is now, will not last much longer.
32 I would like you to be free from worry. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's work, because he is trying to please the Lord.