Parallel Bible results for "1 corinthians 7"

1 Corinthians 7

The Message Bible MSG

1 Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations?

2 Certainly - but only within a certain context. It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder.

3 The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality - the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband.

4 Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out.

5 Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it's for the purposes of prayer and fasting - but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it.

6 I'm not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence - only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.

7 Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me - a simpler life in many ways! But celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.

8 I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me.

9 But if they can't manage their desires and emotions, they should by all means go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.

10 And if you are married, stay married. This is the Master's command, not mine.

11 If a wife should leave her husband, she must either remain single or else come back and make things right with him. And a husband has no right to get rid of his wife.

12 For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages - Christian married to nonChristian - we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her.

13 If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him.

14 The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God.

15 On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you've got to let him or her go. You don't have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can.

16 You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God.

17 And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don't think I'm being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches.

18 Were you Jewish at the time God called you? Don't try to remove the evidence. Were you non-Jewish at the time of your call? Don't become a Jew.

19 Being Jewish isn't the point. The really important thing is obeying God's call, following his commands.

20 Stay where you were when God called your name.

21 Were you a slave? Slavery is no roadblock to obeying and believing. I don't mean you're stuck and can't leave. If you have a chance at freedom, go ahead and take it.

22 I'm simply trying to point out that under your new Master you're going to experience a marvelous freedom you would never have dreamed of. On the other hand, if you were free when Christ called you, you'll experience a delightful "enslavement to God" you would never have dreamed of.

23 All of you, slave and free both, were once held hostage in a sinful society. Then a huge sum was paid out for your ransom. So please don't, out of old habit, slip back into being or doing what everyone else tells you.

24 Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.

25 The Master did not give explicit direction regarding virgins, but as one much experienced in the mercy of the Master and loyal to him all the way, you can trust my counsel.

26 Because of the current pressures on us from all sides, I think it would probably be best to stay just as you are.

27 Are you married? Stay married. Are you unmarried? Don't get married.

28 But there's certainly no sin in getting married, whether you're a virgin or not. All I am saying is that when you marry, you take on additional stress in an already stressful time, and I want to spare you if possible.

29 I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple - in marriage,

30 grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things - your daily routines of shopping, and so on.

31 Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.

32 I want you to live as free of complications as possible. When you're unmarried, you're free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master.

33 Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life and in wanting to please your spouse,

34 leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy that married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming whole and holy instruments of God.

35 I'm trying to be helpful and make it as easy as possible for you, not make things harder. All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.

36 If a man has a woman friend to whom he is loyal but never intended to marry, having decided to serve God as a "single," and then changes his mind, deciding he should marry her, he should go ahead and marry. It's no sin; it's not even a "step down" from celibacy, as some say.

37 On the other hand, if a man is comfortable in his decision for a single life in service to God and it's entirely his own conviction and not imposed on him by others, he ought to stick with it.

38 Marriage is spiritually and morally right and not inferior to singleness in any way, although as I indicated earlier, because of the times we live in, I do have pastoral reasons for encouraging singleness.

39 A wife must stay with her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she is free to marry anyone she chooses. She will, of course, want to marry a believer and have the blessing of the Master.

40 By now you know that I think she'll be better off staying single. The Master, in my opinion, thinks so, too.

The Latin Vulgate VUL

1 de quibus autem scripsistis bonum est homini mulierem non tangere

2 propter fornicationes autem unusquisque suam uxorem habeat et unaquaeque suum virum habeat

3 uxori vir debitum reddat similiter autem et uxor viro

4 mulier sui corporis potestatem non habet sed vir similiter autem et vir sui corporis potestatem non habet sed mulier

5 nolite fraudare invicem nisi forte ex consensu ad tempus ut vacetis orationi et iterum revertimini in id ipsum ne temptet vos Satanas propter incontinentiam vestram

6 hoc autem dico secundum indulgentiam non secundum imperium

7 volo autem omnes homines esse sicut me ipsum sed unusquisque proprium habet donum ex Deo alius quidem sic alius vero sic

8 dico autem non nuptis et viduis bonum est illis si sic maneant sicut et ego

9 quod si non se continent nubant melius est enim nubere quam uri

10 his autem qui matrimonio iuncti sunt praecipio non ego sed Dominus uxorem a viro non discedere

11 quod si discesserit manere innuptam aut viro suo reconciliari et vir uxorem ne dimittat

12 nam ceteris ego dico non Dominus si quis frater uxorem habet infidelem et haec consentit habitare cum illo non dimittat illam

13 et si qua mulier habet virum infidelem et hic consentit habitare cum illa non dimittat virum

14 sanctificatus est enim vir infidelis in muliere fideli et sanctificata est mulier infidelis per virum fidelem alioquin filii vestri inmundi essent nunc autem sancti sunt

15 quod si infidelis discedit discedat non est enim servituti subiectus frater aut soror in eiusmodi in pace autem vocavit nos Deus

16 unde enim scis mulier si virum salvum facies aut unde scis vir si mulierem salvam facies

17 nisi unicuique sicut divisit Dominus unumquemque sicut vocavit Deus ita ambulet et sic in omnibus ecclesiis doceo

18 circumcisus aliquis vocatus est non adducat praeputium in praeputio aliquis vocatus est non circumcidatur

19 circumcisio nihil est et praeputium nihil est sed observatio mandatorum Dei

20 unusquisque in qua vocatione vocatus est in ea permaneat

21 servus vocatus es non sit tibi curae sed et si potes liber fieri magis utere

22 qui enim in Domino vocatus est servus libertus est Domini similiter qui liber vocatus est servus est Christi

23 pretio empti estis nolite fieri servi hominum

24 unusquisque in quo vocatus est fratres in hoc maneat apud Deum

25 de virginibus autem praeceptum Domini non habeo consilium autem do tamquam misericordiam consecutus a Domino ut sim fidelis

26 existimo ergo hoc bonum esse propter instantem necessitatem quoniam bonum est homini sic esse

27 alligatus es uxori noli quaerere solutionem solutus es ab uxore noli quaerere uxorem

28 si autem acceperis uxorem non peccasti et si nupserit virgo non peccavit tribulationem tamen carnis habebunt huiusmodi ego autem vobis parco

29 hoc itaque dico fratres tempus breve est reliquum est ut qui habent uxores tamquam non habentes sint

30 et qui flent tamquam non flentes et qui gaudent tamquam non gaudentes et qui emunt tamquam non possidentes

31 et qui utuntur hoc mundo tamquam non utantur praeterit enim figura huius mundi

32 volo autem vos sine sollicitudine esse qui sine uxore est sollicitus est quae Domini sunt quomodo placeat Deo

33 qui autem cum uxore est sollicitus est quae sunt mundi quomodo placeat uxori et divisus est

34 et mulier innupta et virgo cogitat quae Domini sunt ut sit sancta et corpore et spiritu quae autem nupta est cogitat quae sunt mundi quomodo placeat viro

35 porro hoc ad utilitatem vestram dico non ut laqueum vobis iniciam sed ad id quod honestum est et quod facultatem praebeat sine inpedimento Dominum observandi

36 si quis autem turpem se videri existimat super virgine sua quod sit superadulta et ita oportet fieri quod vult faciat non peccat nubat

37 nam qui statuit in corde suo firmus non habens necessitatem potestatem autem habet suae voluntatis et hoc iudicavit in corde suo servare virginem suam bene facit

38 igitur et qui matrimonio iungit virginem suam bene facit et qui non iungit melius facit

39 mulier alligata est quanto tempore vir eius vivit quod si dormierit vir eius liberata est cui vult nubat tantum in Domino

40 beatior autem erit si sic permanserit secundum meum consilium puto autem quod et ego Spiritum Dei habeo