16. And how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
17. However, let each one walk just as the Lord has distributed to him, each one just as God has called him. And thus do I teach in all the churches.
18. Has any circumcised man been called? Let him not cover his circumcision. Has any uncircumcised man been called? Let him not be circumcised.
19. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; there is only the observance of the commandments of God.
20. Let each and every one remain in the same calling to which he was called.
21. Are you a servant who has been called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you ever have the ability to be free, make use of it.
22. For any servant who has been called in the Lord is free in the Lord. Similarly, any free person who has been called is a servant in Christ.
23. You have been bought with a price. Do not be willing to become the servants of men.
24. Brothers, let each one, in whatever state he was called, remain in that state with God.
25. Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord. But I give counsel, as one who has obtained the mercy of the Lord, so as to be faithful.
26. Therefore, I consider this to be good, because of the present necessity: that it is good for a man to be such as I am.
27. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be freed. Are you free of a wife? Do not seek a wife.
28. But if you take a wife, you have not sinned. And if a virgin has married, she has not sinned. Even so, such as these will have the tribulation of the flesh. But I would spare you from this.
29. And so, this is what I say, brothers: The time is short. What remains of it is such that: those who have wives should be as if they had none;
30. and those who weep, as though they were not weeping; and those who rejoice, as if they were not rejoicing; and those who buy, as if they possessed nothing;