Now concerning the  ¹things of which you wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

But because of  ¹fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

Let the husband render to his wife that which is due, and likewise also the wife to the husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise the husband also does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Do not deprive each other, except by agreement for a time that you may  ¹devote yourselves to prayer, and then be together again, that  ²Satan may not tempt you because of your  ³lack of self-control.

But this I say by way of concession, not by way of command.

Yet I  ¹wish all men to be even as I am myself; but each has his own  ²gift from God, one in this way, the other in that.

But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is good for them if they remain even as I am.

But if they do not have  ¹self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with desire.

But to the married  ¹I charge,  ²not I but the Lord, A wife must not be separated from her husband

(But if indeed she is separated, let her  ¹remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband), and a husband must not leave his wife.

But to the rest  ¹I say, I, not the Lord, If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she consents to dwell with him, he must not leave her;

And a wife who has an unbelieving husband, and if he consents to dwell with her, must not leave her husband.

For the unbelieving husband is  ¹sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the brother; otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

But if the unbelieving one separates, let him separate; the brother or the sister is  ¹not enslaved in such cases,  ²but God has called us in peace.

 ¹For  ²how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

 ¹However as the Lord has apportioned to each one, as God has called each one, so let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches.

Was anyone called having been circumcised? He need not  ¹efface it. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He need not be circumcised.

 ¹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of God's commandments is what counts.

Each one, in the calling in which he was called, in this let him remain.

Were you called as a slave?  ¹Let it not concern you;  ²but even if you are able to become free, use your status as a slave rather.

For the slave who has been called in the Lord is the Lord's freedman; likewise the free man who has been called is  ¹Christ's slave.

You were bought with a  ¹price; do not be  ²slaves of men.

Each one, brothers, in what status he was called, in this let him remain  ¹with God.

Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give  ¹my opinion as one who has been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful.

I consider then that this is good because of the  ¹present  ²necessity, that it is good for a man to be as he is.

Have you been bound to a wife? Do not seek a release. Have you been released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if the virgin marries, she has not sinned; but such ones will have affliction in the flesh, and I am trying to spare you.

But this I say, brothers, the time is  ¹shortened. Henceforth both those who have wives should be as though they had none,

And those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess,

And those who use the world as though they did not abuse it; for the fashion of this world is passing away.

But I desire you to be without care. The unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

But he who has married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

And is  ¹distracted. Both the unmarried woman and the virgin care for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she who has married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

But this I say for your own profit, not that I may  ¹put a noose upon you but that you may be comely and may wait on the Lord without distraction.

But if anyone thinks that he is behaving unbecomingly to his virgin daughter, if she is past the bloom of youth and thus it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let them marry.

But he who stands firm in his heart,  ¹being under no constraint, and has authority with respect to his own will and has  ²decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

A wife is bound for so long a time as her husband lives; but should the husband fall asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only to one in the Lord.

But she is  ¹more blessed if she so remains, according to my opinion; but I think that I  ²also have the Spirit of God.

Now concerning  ¹things sacrificed to idols, we  ²know that we all have  ³knowledge.  ⁴Knowledge puffs up, but  ⁴love  ⁵builds up.

If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet come to know as he ought to  ¹know;

But if anyone  ¹loves God, this one is known by Him.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we  ¹know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one.

For even if there are so-called gods, either in heaven or on earth, even as there are many gods and many lords,

Yet to  ¹us there is  ²one God, the  ³Father,  ⁴out from whom are all things, and we are  ⁴unto Him; and  ⁵one Lord,  ⁶Jesus Christ,  ⁴through whom are all things, and we are  ⁴through Him.

But this knowledge is not in all men; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat the food as an idol sacrifice, and their  ¹conscience, being weak, is  ²defiled.

But food will not commend us to God; neither if we do not eat are we lacking, nor if we eat do we  ¹abound.

But beware lest somehow this  ¹right of yours become a stumbling block to the  ²weak ones.

For if anyone sees you who have knowledge reclining at table in an idol temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be  ¹emboldened to eat the things sacrificed to the idols?

For the one who is weak is being  ¹destroyed by your knowledge, the brother because of whom Christ died.

And sinning in this way against the brothers and  ¹wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

Therefore if food  ¹stumbles my brother, I shall by no means eat  ²meat forever, that I may not  ¹stumble my brother.

 ¹Am I not  ²free? Am I not an  ³apostle? Have I not  ⁴seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my  ⁵work in the Lord?

If to others I am not an apostle, yet surely I am to  ¹you; for you in the Lord are the  ²seal of my apostleship.

My defense to those who examine me is  ¹this.

 ¹Do we not have a  ²right to  ³eat and to drink?

Do we not have a right to take along a sister as a wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Or do only I and Barnabas not have the right not to work?

What soldier ever serves by his own wages? Who plants a vineyard and does not partake of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?

Am I speaking these things according to man? Or does the law not also say these things?

For in the law of Moses it is written: “You shall not muzzle the ox  ¹while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God cares?

Or does He say it altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written because the plowman should plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of partaking.

If we have sown to you the spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap from you the fleshly things?

If others partake of this right over you, should not rather we? Yet we did not use this right, but we  ¹bear all things that we may not cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that those who labor on the  ¹sacred things eat the things of the sacred temple, that those who attend to the altar have their portion with the altar?

So also the Lord directed those who announce the gospel to live from the gospel.

But I myself have not used any of these things; and I have not written these things that it may be so with me; for it is good for me  ¹rather to die  ²than — No one shall make my boast void.

For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for necessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.

If I do this of my own will, I have a  ¹reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a  ²stewardship.

What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may present the gospel without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel.

For though I am free from  ¹all, I have enslaved myself to  ¹all that I might gain the more.

And to the Jews I became as a Jew in order that I might gain Jews; to those under law, as under law (though I myself am not under law), that I might gain those under law.

To those without law, as without law (though I am not  ¹without law to God but  ²within law to Christ), that I might gain those without law.

To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak. To all men I have  ¹become all things that I might by all means save some.

And I do all things for the sake of the gospel that I may become a  ¹fellow partaker of it.

Do you not know that those who  ¹run on a racecourse all run, but one receives the  ²prize? Run in this way, that you may  ³lay hold.

And everyone who contends exercises self-control in all things; they then, that they may receive a corruptible  ¹crown, but we, an incorruptible.

I therefore run in this way, not as though without a clear aim; I box in this way, not as though beating the air;

But I  ¹buffet my body and  ²make it my slave,  ³lest perhaps having  ⁴preached to others, I myself may become  ⁵disapproved.