⁸ I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

¹ Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

²⁶ I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.

²⁷ Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

³² But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

³⁴ There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

³⁵ And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.