Counsel Concerning Virgins and the Present Distress

25

Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful.

26

I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity: that it is good for a man so to be.

27

Art thou bound to a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.

28

But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh. But I spare you.

29

This therefore I say, brethren: The time is short. It remaineth, that they also who have wives be as if they had none:

30

And they that weep, as though they wept not: and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not: and they that buy as if they possessed not:

31

And they that use this world, as if they used it not. For the fashion of this world passeth away.

32

But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord: how he may please God.

33

But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world: how he may please his wife. And he is divided.

34

And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord: that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married thinketh on the things of the world: how she may please her husband.

35

And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord, without impediment.

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