007:022 For a Christian, if he was a slave when called, is the Lord's
freed man, and in the same way a free man, if called,
becomes the slave of Christ.
007:023 You have all been redeemed at infinite cost: do not become
slaves to men.
007:024 Where each one stood when he was called, there, brethren, let him
still stand—close to God.
007:025 Concerning unmarried women I have no command to give you from the Lord; but I offer you my opinion, which is that of a man who, through the Lord's mercy, is deserving of your confidence.
007:026 I think then that, taking into consideration the distress
which is now upon us, it is well for a man to remain as he is.
007:027 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to get free.
Are you free from the marriage bond? Do not seek for a wife.
007:028 Yet if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a maiden marries,
she has not sinned. Such people, however, will have
outward trouble. But I am for sparing you.
007:029 Yet of this I warn you, brethren: the time has been shortened—
so that henceforth those who have wives should be as though
they had none,
007:030 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice
as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they
did not possess,
007:031 and those who use the world as not using it to the full.
For the world as it now exists is passing away.