1 Corinthians 7:10–33

Keep Your Marriage Vows

¹⁰Now to the married I command, yet not I but the ⁱLord: ^jA wife is not to depart from her husband. ¹¹But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.

¹²But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. ¹³And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise ^kyour children would be unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us ^lto peace. ¹⁶For how do you know, O wife, whether you will ^msave your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

Live as You are Called

¹⁷But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And ⁿso I ¹ordain in all the churches. ¹⁸Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? ^oLet him not be circumcised. ^19pCircumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but ^qkeeping the commandments of God is what matters. ²⁰Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. ²¹Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. ²²For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is ^rthe Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is ^sChrist’s slave. ^23tYou were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. ²⁴Brethren, let each one remain with ^uGod in that state in which he was called.

To the Unmarried and Widows

²⁵Now concerning virgins: ^vI have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one ^wwhom the Lord in His mercy has made ^xtrustworthy. ²⁶I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress—^ythat it is good for a man to remain as he is: ²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you.

²⁹But ^zthis I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, ³⁰those 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, ³¹and those who use this world as not ^amisusing it. For ^bthe form of this world is passing away.

³²But I want you to be without ²care. ^cHe who is unmarried ³cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. ³³But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife.