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7:14  For the unbelieving husband is set apart (separated, withdrawn from heathen contamination, and affiliated with the Christian people) by union with his consecrated (set-apart) wife, and the unbelieving wife is set apart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.