Present Distress Makes Undistracted Singleness a Real Good

In a tight time, undivided attention is a real good, not a ranking.

Now concerning the betrothed, Paul has no command of the Lord, but he gives his judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. In view of the present distress, it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. If you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and he would spare them that.

The appointed time has grown short. Let those who have wives live as though they had none, those who mourn as though they were not mourning, those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it, for the present form of this world is passing away. He wants them free from anxieties. The unmarried person is anxious about the things of the Lord; the married person is anxious about the things of the world, how to please a spouse, and his interests are divided. Paul says this for their own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon them, but to promote good order and secure undivided devotion to the Lord. The counsel does not demean marriage, sexuality, parenting, grief, joy, work, or ordinary stewardship.