There is context here.  It is a context that shapes the narrative.  But let’s give Paul’s advice:

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.  But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

There are multiple layers in this context.  There is the instructional context in which Paul is telling them to run from sexual immorality.  Lust and its deviances had basically been sanctioned in the church, so much so that a man would have sexual relations with a family member and instead of being aghast, the church celebrated.  Pretty wicked stuff right there.

But then there is the historical context of the time.  Paul mentions singleness as an ideal “in view of the present distress” (v. 26).  Considering Paul has been through some serious distress in his times of ministry, the guess is that this fairly intense.  

What are some possibilities of the distress?

• Maybe rampant persecution being a colony of Rome
• Or perhaps because of the famine under Claudius

He isn’t saying to the unmarried people, “don’t marry.”  In fact, he prefers that they marry rather than indulge in sexual immorality.  Rather he is saying, for the times, it is good to remain single.  And as we will see, he views singleness as a means to devote oneself more fully to the Lord.