This section was a little confusing in how it was worded, and how it was answering a question or two that we aren’t privy to and can’t fully discern.   But, the big take away from this for me is just how well balanced Paul is on this topic of marriage.  Paul is clearly teaching how Jesus taught - that there aren’t really very many black and white ‘rules’, but there are boundaries to our lifestyle, and God is ultimately about our hearts, not our actions.  Paul isn’t saying marriage is good or bad, or that sexual relations (within marriage) are good or bad, but he is expressing that the benefits of not marrying are really that we are able to have a single-minded focus on God’s calling on our own life.  When we get married, we have a new responsibility - we have to keep our spouse’s ideas in mind in order to love him of her well, and that divides our focus.  None of that is hard to argue against.

We need to be thinking about our lives and our commitments that way in general - asking the question, “How does this contribute or take away from me focus on God?”.  That’s a great little question to pray through from time to time.