23 Ye are bought with a price; do not make yourselves the slaves of men.
24 Each one, brothers, in that state in which he was called, let him abide with God.
25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my advice, as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
26 I hold, therefore, this to be good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to be thus:
27 Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.
28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have affliction in the flesh, but I forbear you.
29 But this I say, brothers, the time is short; for the rest, let those that have wives be as though they had none;