Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: 1 Corinthians | Page 6

us to live lives of peace. 007:016 For what assurance have you, O woman, as to whether you will save your husband? Or what assurance have you, O man, as to whether you will save your wife? 007:017 Only, whatever be the condition in life which the Lord has assigned to each individual--and whatever the condition in which he was living when God called him--in that let him continue. 007:018 This is what I command in all the Churches. Was any one already circumcised when called? Let him not have recourse to the surgeons. Was any one uncircumcised when called? Let him remain uncircumcised. 007:019 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing: obedience to God's commandments is everything. 007:020 Whatever be the condition in life in which a man was, when he was called, in that let him continue. 007:021 Were you a slave when God called you? Let not that weigh on your mind. And yet if you can get your freedom, take advantage of the opportunity. 007:022 For a Christian, if he was a slave when called, is the Lord's freed man, and in the same way a free man, if called, becomes the slave of Christ. 007:023 You have all been redeemed at infinite cost: do not become slaves to men. 007:024 Where each one stood when he was called, there, brethren, let him still stand--close to God. 007:025 Concerning unmarried women I have no command to give you from the Lord; but I offer you my opinion, which is that of a man who, through the Lord's mercy, is deserving of your confidence. 007:026 I think then that, taking into consideration the distress which is now upon us, it is well for a man to remain as he is. 007:027 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to get free. Are you free from the marriage bond? Do not seek for a wife. 007:028 Yet if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a maiden marries, she has not sinned. Such people, however, will have outward trouble. But I am for sparing you. 007:029 Yet of this I warn you, brethren: the time has been shortened-- so that henceforth those who have wives should be as though they had none, 007:030 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, 007:031 and those who use the world as not using it to the full. For the world as it now exists is passing away. 007:032 And I would have you free from worldly anxiety. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's business-- how he shall please the Lord; 007:033 but a married man concerns himself with the business of the world-- how he shall please his wife. 007:034 There is a difference too between a married and an unmarried woman. She who is unmarried concerns herself with the Lord's business-- that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but the married woman concerns herself with the business of the world-- how she shall please her husband. 007:035 Thus much I say in your own interest; not to lay a trap for you, but to help towards what is becoming, and enable you to wait on the Lord without distraction. 007:036 If, however, a father thinks he is acting unbecomingly towards his still unmarried daughter if she be past the bloom of her youth, and so the matter is urgent, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin; she and her suitor should be allowed to marry. 007:037 But if a father stands firm in his resolve, being free from all external constraint and having a legal right to act as he pleases, and in his own mind has come to the decision to keep his daughter unmarried, he will do well. 007:038 So that he who gives his daughter in marriage does well, and yet he who does not give her in marriage will do better. 007:039 A woman is bound to her husband during the whole period that he lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to marry whom she will, provided that he is a Christian. 007:040 But in my judgement, her state is a more enviable one if she remains as she is; and I also think that I have the Spirit of God. 008:001 Now as to things which have been sacrificed to idols. This is a subject which we already understand--because we all have knowledge of it. Knowledge, however, tends to make people conceited; it is love that builds us up. 008:002 If any one imagines that he already possesses any true knowledge, he has as yet attained to no knowledge of