The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 7 -

You wrote to me some questions about how married believers should live. Here is my answer. There may be times in which it is good to abstain from making love in marriage.

But people are tempted very often to be sexually immoral. So each husband should have his own wife, and each wife should have her own husband.

And each married believer should have the right to make love with his or her spouse.

For the husband gives control of his body to his wife. And the wife gives control of her body to her husband.

So do not deprive one another of making love, unless you both agree to abstain from it for a short period of time, so that you may pray. But after that time is over, come together again. Do not allow Satan to tempt you because you cannot control yourself.

I am not commanding you to get married, but I will compromise because I know that many of you are married or will wish to marry.

My example is before you: I am single, and sometimes I wish that each of you were single in order to serve God. But God gives many different gifts to his children; he makes some able to be married, and others to remain single.

To those of you who have never married and those whose husbands have died, I say that it would be good if you continue to be single, like me.

But if it is hard for you to control yourself, you should get married. It is better for you to marry than to suffer from strong sexual desires.

The Lord gives his own commands to you who are married: “The wife should not separate from her husband.”

But if she separates from her husband, she should not marry again, or else she should make peace with her husband. And, “the husband should not divorce his wife.”

And I have this to say, and this is my advice, not the Lord’s command, to you who have a wife who is not a believer: If she is content to stay with you, do not divorce her.

And if you are a woman with a husband who does not believe, and if he is content to stay with you, do not divorce him.

The unbelieving husband is set apart in a special way because the wife trusts in God. It is the same for an unbelieving woman with a husband who trusts in God. It is the same for your children: They are set apart in a special way to God, because one parent believes in Messiah.

However, if the unbelieving spouse wants to leave you, you should let that person go. In this situation, the vow you took when you married is no longer binding on you. God has called us to peace.

You do not know how God may work through the life you live before your unbelieving spouse. And you do not know whether your life may become a means by which God might save your husband or your wife.

Live Your Calling

We must live the life the Lord has assigned us to live, and to obey the call God gave us. This is the principle in all the churches.

If you were circumcised before you became a Christian, you should not try to remove the marks of that circumcision. If you were not circumcised when God saved you, you should not let anyone circumcise you.

Circumcision or uncircumcision, these are not important to us. But what is important is that we obey what God commands us to do.

So continue to live and work as you did when God called you to trust in Messiah.

If you were a slave when God saved you, do not worry about it. Of course, if you have the chance to gain your freedom, take advantage of the opportunity.

This is because anyone who the Lord calls a slave is a free person because of the Lord. In the same way, you become God’s slave when he calls you, even if you were never a slave to anyone.

God bought you with the price of his Son; your freedom is precious. So do not become slaves of humans.

Brothers and sisters in Messiah, whatever you were when God called you, whether you were slave or free, remain in that same position.

The Unmarried and Widowed

Regarding the question about those who have never married, I will give my views, but I have no specific commandment from the Lord on this question. But you can have confidence in my reply because God has been kind to me and enabled me to be someone whom people can trust.

Therefore, because of the difficult times that seem to be coming upon us all, I think it is good for you to remain as you were when God called you.

To you who are married, I say this: Do not seek to be freed from your vow. As for you who are not married, do not try to find a wife.

But to the men who are single, I say, if you marry, you have committed no sin. I give the same advice to the single women: If you get married, you have committed no sin. However, if you marry, you will find many troubles, so I advise you to remain single.

This is what I mean about the time in which we are living, brothers and sisters: We have a short amount of time left. From now on those who are married will have to live as though they were not married, because of all the trouble that is coming.

Those who are filled with grief should not cry. Those who are rejoicing over some wonderful event should have no joy on their faces. Those who have spent money to buy something should take no delight in it; they should live as if they owned nothing.

And those who deal with the things of the world should not involve themselves completely with them. For this world system is about to crumble into nothing.

I want you to be free from things to worry about. As you see, the unmarried man is concerned about the matters that are important to the Lord. He wants to serve the Lord and do what he wants.

But the man who is married must also concern himself for the ordinary matters of the world as well as serving and pleasing his wife.

So married men can only do some of the things they need to do. It is the same with widows and young ladies who have not married: As believing women, they are concerned to spend their time serving the Lord with their entire selves, with their physical abilities and with their spirit. But married women are concerned about the day-to-day matters of the world, such as how to please their husbands.

I tell you this to help you. I am not trying to control you. If you follow my advice, you will find it easier to serve the Lord without worrying about things that married people worry about.

If a man has promised to marry a woman, but if he finds he is not treating her with respect because she is becoming too old to marry, he should get married. This is not a sin.

But if he has decided that he does not desire to marry at the present time, and if he is in control of the situation, he makes a good decision not to marry.

So the one who marries his fiancée does a good thing and does not sin; and the one who chooses not to marry also chooses something even better.

A woman must remain with her husband as long as he lives; if her husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she wishes, but she must marry only someone who has faith in the Lord.

However, it is my judgment that a widow will be happier if she does not marry again. And I think that I, too, have the Spirit of God.

Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her,(a) and likewise also the wife her husband.

The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment.

Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.

But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am.

But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn with passion.

But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband

(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.

The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.

For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Live Your Calling

Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.

Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping God’s commandments.

Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called.

Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.

For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant.

You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.

Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

The Unmarried and Widowed

Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.

Therefore I think that because of the distress that is on us, it’s good for a man to remain as he is.

Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.

But I say this, brothers: the time is short. From now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess;

and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.

This I say for your own benefit, not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry.

But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

Footnotes

(a)7:3 NU and TR have “what is owed her” instead of “the affection owed her”.