But if you do marry, you haven't committed a sin; and if an unmarried woman marries, she hasn't committed a sin. But I would rather spare you the everyday troubles that married people will have.

and so he is pulled in two directions. An unmarried woman or a virgin concerns herself with the Lord's work, because she wants to be dedicated both in body and spirit; but a married woman concerns herself with worldly matters, because she wants to please her husband.

In the case of an engaged couple who have decided not to marry: if the man feels that he is not acting properly toward the young woman and if his passions are too strong and he feels that they ought to marry, then they should get married, as he wants to. There is no sin in this.

So the man who marries does well, but the one who doesn't marry does even better.

Young men were killed in war, and young women had no one to marry.

I tell you this not as an order, but simply as a permission.

For married people I have a command which is not my own but the Lord's: a wife must not leave her husband;

To the others I say (I, myself, not the Lord): if a Christian man has a wife who is an unbeliever and she agrees to go on living with him, he must not divorce her.

She will be happier, however, if she stays as she is. That is my opinion, and I think that I too have God's Spirit.

I am not laying down any rules. But by showing how eager others are to help, I am trying to find out how real your own love is.

My opinion is that it is better for you to finish now what you began last year. You were the first, not only to act, but also to be willing to act.

Of course what I am saying now is not what the Lord would have me say; in this matter of boasting I am really talking like a fool.

The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful to their master.

But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God's grace working with me.

We are not like so many others, who handle God's message as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in his presence, as servants of Christ.

God in his mercy has given us this work to do, and so we do not become discouraged.

We put aside all secret and shameful deeds; we do not act with deceit, nor do we falsify the word of God. In the full light of truth we live in God's sight and try to commend ourselves to everyone's good conscience.

I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength for my work. I thank him for considering me worthy and appointing me to serve him,

And our Lord poured out his abundant grace on me and gave me the faith and love which are ours in union with Christ Jesus.

but God was merciful to me in order that Christ Jesus might show his full patience in dealing with me, the worst of sinners, as an example for all those who would later believe in him and receive eternal life.