Twentieth_Century(i)
29 What I mean, Brothers, is this-The time is short. Meanwhile, let those who have wives live as if they had none,
30 Those who are weeping as if not weeping, those who are rejoicing as if not rejoicing, those who buy as if not possessing,
31 And those who use the good things of the world as using them sparingly; for this world as we see it is passing away.
32 I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious about the Master's Cause, desiring to please him;
33 While the married man is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please his wife;
34 And so his interests are divided. Again, the unmarried woman, whether she is old or young, is anxious about the Master's Cause, striving to be pure both in body and in spirit, while the married woman is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please her husband.
35 I say this for your own benefit, not with any intention of putting a halter round your necks, but in order to secure for the Master seemly and constant devotion, free from all distraction.
36 If, however, a father thinks that he is not acting fairly by his unmarried daughter, when she is past her youth, and if under these circumstances her marriage ought to take place, let him act as he thinks right. He is doing nothing wrong-let the marriage take place.
37 On the other hand, a father, who has definitely made up his mind, and is under no compulsion, but is free to carry out his own wishes, and who has come to the decision, in his own mind, to keep his unmarried daughter at home will be doing right.
38 In short, the one who consents to his daughter's marriage is doing right, and yet the other will be doing better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but, if the husband should pass to his rest, the widow is free to marry any one she wishes, provided he is a believer.
40 Yet she will be happier if she remains as she is-in my opinion, for I think that I also have the Spirit of God.