7:1 NOW AS to the matters of which you wrote me. It is well [and by that I mean advantageous, expedient, profitable, and wholesome] for a man not to touch a woman [to cohabit with her] {but} to remain unmarried. |
7:2 But because of the temptation to impurity {and} to avoid immorality, let each [man] have his own wife and let each [woman] have her own husband. |
7:3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights (goodwill, kindness, and what is due her as his wife), and likewise the wife to her husband. |
7:4 For the wife does not have [exclusive] authority {and} control over her own body, but the husband [has his rights]; likewise also the husband does not have [exclusive] authority {and} control over his body, but the wife [has her rights]. |
7:5 Do not refuse {and} deprive {and} defraud each other [of your due marital rights], except perhaps by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves unhindered to prayer. But afterwards resume marital relations, lest Satan tempt you [to sin] through your lack of restraint of sexual desire. |
7:6 But I am saying this more as a matter of permission {and} concession, not as a command {or} regulation. |
7:7 I wish that all men were like I myself am [in this matter of self-control]. But each has his own special gift from God, one of this kind and one of another. |
7:8 But to the unmarried people and to the widows, I declare that it is well (good, advantageous, expedient, and wholesome) for them to remain [single] even as I do. |
7:9 But if they have not self-control (restraint of their passions), they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame [with passion and tortured continually with ungratified desire]. |
7:10 But to the married people I give charge--not I but the Lord--that the wife is not to separate from her husband. |
7:11 But if she does [separate from and divorce him], let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband. And [I charge] the husband [also] that he should not put away {or} divorce his wife. |
7:12 To the rest I declare--I, not the Lord [for Jesus did not discuss this]--that if any brother has a wife who does not believe [in Christ] and she consents to live with him, he should not leave {or} divorce her. |
7:13 And if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she should not leave {or} divorce him. |
7:14 For the unbelieving husband is set apart (separated, withdrawn from heathen contamination, and affiliated with the Christian people) by union with his consecrated (set-apart) wife, and the unbelieving wife is set apart {and} separated through union with her consecrated husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean (unblessed heathen, outside the Christian covenant), but as it is they are prepared for God [pure and clean]. |
7:15 But if the unbelieving partner [actually] leaves, let him do so; in such [cases the remaining] brother or sister is not morally bound. But God has called us to peace. |
7:16 For, wife, how can you be sure of converting {and} saving your husband? Husband, how can you be sure of converting {and} saving your wife? |
7:17 Only, let each one [seek to conduct himself and regulate his affairs so as to] lead the life which the Lord has allotted {and} imparted to him and to which God has invited {and} summoned him. This is my order in all the churches. |
7:18 Was anyone at the time of his summons [from God] already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the evidence of circumcision. Was anyone at the time [God] called him uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. |
7:19 For circumcision is nothing {and} counts for nothing, neither does uncircumcision, but [what counts is] keeping the commandments of God. |
7:20 Everyone should remain after God calls him in the station {or} condition of life in which the summons found him. |
7:21 Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. But if you are able to gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. |
7:22 For he who as a slave was summoned in [to union with] the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just so he who was free when he was called is a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah). |
7:23 You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ]. |
7:24 So, brethren, in whatever station {or} state {or} condition of life each one was when he was called, there let him continue with {and} close to God. |
7:25 Now concerning the virgins (the marriageable maidens) I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion {and} advice as one who by the Lord's mercy is rendered trustworthy {and} faithful. |
7:26 I think then, because of the impending distress [that is even now setting in], it is well (expedient, profitable, and wholesome) for a person to remain as he {or} she is. |
7:27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. |
7:28 But if you do marry, you do not sin [in doing so], and if a virgin marries, she does not sin [in doing so]. Yet those who marry will have physical {and} earthly troubles, and I would like to spare you that. |
7:29 I mean, brethren, the appointed time has been winding down {and} it has grown very short. From now on, let even those who have wives be as if they had none, |
7:30 And those who weep {and} mourn as though they were not weeping {and} mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they did not possess anything, |
7:31 And those who deal with this world [overusing the enjoyments of this life] as though they were not absorbed by it {and} as if they had no dealings with it. For the outward form of this world (the present world order) is passing away. |
7:32 My desire is to have you free from all anxiety {and} distressing care. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord--how he may please the Lord; |
7:33 But the married man is anxious about worldly matters--how he may please his wife-- |
7:34 And he is drawn in diverging directions [his interests are divided {and} he is distracted from his devotion to God]. And the unmarried woman or girl is concerned {and} anxious about the matters of the Lord, how to be wholly separated {and} set apart in body and spirit; but the married woman has her cares [centered] in earthly affairs--how she may please her husband. |
7:35 Now I say this for your own welfare {and} profit, not to put [a halter of] restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly {and} in good order and to secure your undistracted {and} undivided devotion to the Lord. |
7:36 But if any man thinks that he is not acting properly toward {and} in regard to his virgin [that he is preparing disgrace for her or incurring reproach], in case she is passing the bloom of her youth and if there is need for it, let him do what to him seems right; he does not sin; let them marry. |
7:37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart [strong in mind and purpose], not being forced by necessity but having control over his own will {and} desire, and has resolved this in his heart to keep his own virginity, he is doing well. |
7:38 So also then, he [the father] who gives his virgin (his daughter) in marriage does well, and he [the father] who does not give [her] in marriage does better. |
7:39 A wife is bound to her husband by law as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she will, only [provided that he too is] in the Lord. |
7:40 But in my opinion [a widow] is happier (more blessed and to be envied) if she does not remarry. And also I think I have the Spirit of God. |