1 Corinthians 7

Paul's teaching on marriage and singleness affirms both states as gifts from God while emphasizing how the present distress makes single-minded devotion to the Lord's affairs advantageous. His instructions for married believers include mutual submission in physical intimacy and prohibition against divorce, though he permits separation in cases involving unbelieving spouses who choose to leave. The principle of remaining in whatever calling one had when converted—whether circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free—emphasizes that gospel transformation affects spiritual rather than social status.