5. Do not deprive one another—except by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6. But this I say as a concession, not as a command.
7. Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this way and another that.
8. But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them to remain as I am.
9. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
10. But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—a wife is not to be separated from her husband
11. (but if she gets separated, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband is not to divorce his wife.
12. But to the rest I say—I, not the Lord—if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she agrees to live with him, he must not divorce her.
13. And if any woman has a husband who is not a believer, and he agrees to live with her, she must not divorce him.
14. For the unbelieving husband is made holy through the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
15. But if the unbeliever separates, let him be separated. The brother or the sister is not bound in such cases, but God has called you to shalom.
16. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
17. Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, let him walk in this way. I give this rule in all of Messiah’s communities.
18. Was anyone called when he already had been circumcised? Let him not make himself uncircumcised. Has anyone been called while uncircumcised? Let him not allow himself to be circumcised.
19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing—but keeping God’s commandments matters.
20. Let each one remain in the calling in which he was called.
21. Were you called as a slave? Don’t let that bother you—but if indeed you can become free, make the most of the opportunity.
22. For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise the one who was called while free is Messiah’s slave.
23. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.