Ambrosiaster : Here Paul teaches that virginity is better, not just because it is more pleasing to God but also because it is the more sensible course to follow in the present [end-time] circumstances. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES Tertullian : Now, if in all cases he says it is best for a man thus to be; "Thou art joined to a wife seek not loosing" (that you may give no occasion to adultery); "thou art loosed from a wife, seek not a wife," that you may reserve an opportunity for yourself: "but withal, if thou shalt have married a wife, and if a virgin shall have married, she sinneth not; pressure, however, of the flesh such shall have,"-even here he is granting a permission by way of "sparing them." On the other hand, he lays it down that "the time is wound up," in order that even "they who have wives may be as if they had them not. — On Modesty