11
Concern for Their Faithfulness
1Oh, that you would bear with me in a little ⚓folly—and indeed you do bear with me.
2For I am ⚓jealous for you with godly jealousy. For ⚓I have betrothed you to one husband, ⚓that I may present you⚓as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3But I fear, lest somehow, as ⚓the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds ⚓may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a ⚓different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
Paul and False Apostles
5For I consider that ⚓I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles.
6Even though ⚓I am untrained in speech, yet I am not ⚓in knowledge. But ⚓we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.
7Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you ⚓free of charge?
8I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you.
9And when I was present with you, and in need, ⚓I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked ⚓the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself.
10⚓As the truth of Christ is in me, ⚓no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11Why? ⚓Because I do not love you? God knows!
12But what I do, I will also continue to do, ⚓that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.
13For such ⚓are false apostles, ⚓deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
14And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into ⚓an angel of light.
15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, ⚓whose end will be according to their works.
Reluctant Boasting
16I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little.
17What I speak, ⚓I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
18Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast.
19For you put up with fools gladly, ⚓since you yourselves are wise!
20For you put up with it ⚓if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face.
21To our shame ⚓I say that we were too weak for that! But ⚓in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.
Suffering for Christ
22Are they ⚓Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
23Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: ⚓in labors more abundant, ⚓in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, ⚓in deaths often.
24From the Jews five times I received ⚓forty ⚓stripes minus one.
25Three times I was ⚓beaten with rods; ⚓once I was stoned; three times I ⚓was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, ⚓in perils of my own countrymen, ⚓in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27in weariness and toil, ⚓in sleeplessness often, ⚓in hunger and thirst, in ⚓fastings often, in cold and nakedness—
28besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: ⚓my deep concern for all the churches.
29⚓Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
30If I must boast, ⚓I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.
31⚓The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⚓who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
32⚓In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me;
33but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.