1 Corinthians 7King James Version
Marriage and singleness. Paul gives his honest opinion: it is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of fornication, let every man have his own wife. He treats marriage and celibacy with surprising equality for his time. The unmarried care for the things of the Lord. Time is short.
Paul addresses a series of questions about marriage the Corinthians have written to him. He affirms celibacy as a gift but insists marriage is not second-tier; within marriage, sexual faithfulness is owed to the spouse. He advises those in mixed marriages to stay if possible. He counsels the unmarried that marriage is wise if they struggle with desire. His overarching logic is shaped by the belief that the present age is passing away quickly.
Marriage is good. Celibacy is also good. Neither is more holy than the other. The question is which calling fits your actual life, given that time is short and undivided devotion to God matters.
"But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches." (7:17) The principle of staying in your calling rather than scrambling for a different social status runs through the whole chapter and counters both ascetic and libertine impulses.
Corinth's social fabric included significant numbers of enslaved people, freedpeople, and the economically mobile middle class of a port city. Paul's insistence that calling transcends social status, the enslaved person is Christ's freedman, the free person is Christ's slave, would have cut across every normal social hierarchy in the room.
Paul speaks as a single man who wishes others could share his contentment with celibacy, but explicitly acknowledges this is a gift not everyone has. The couples addressed are both equally-yoked believers and mixed households where one spouse has come to faith after marriage. Widows, the formerly enslaved, and the unmarried all receive specific attention.
Some in Corinth apparently argued for complete sexual abstinence even within marriage, possibly influenced by an early ascetic theology that viewed the body as corrupt. Others may have seen spiritual status as grounds for divorce from an unbelieving spouse. Paul pushes back on both extremes: bodies matter, marriages matter, and peace matters. His eschatological note, the time is short, is not pessimism but prioritization.
This is one of Paul's most pastorally attentive chapters. He tracks real human situations carefully: the widowed, the enslaved, the anxiously unmarried. There is no contempt for embodied life here. The tone is practical and kind.
1Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
3Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
4The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
5Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
6But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.
7For 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.
8I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
9But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
10And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:
11But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
12But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
13And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.
14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
15But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
16For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?
17But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.
18Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.
19Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
20Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
21Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.
22For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.
23Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
24Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
25Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
26I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.
27Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
28But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
29But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
30And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
31And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
32But 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:
33But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
34There 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.
35And 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.
36But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.
37Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.
38So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.
39The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
40But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.