11
1 I
wish that you
would bear with
me in a
little foolishness, but
indeed you do
bear with me.
2 For
I am jealous
over you with
a godly jealousy.
For I promised you
in marriage to
one husband, that
I might present
you as a pure
virgin to Christ.
3 But
I am afraid
that somehow, as
the serpent
deceived Eve in
his craftiness, so
your minds might
be corrupted from
the simplicity that
is in Christ.
4 For
if he who
comes preaches
another Jesus whom
we didn’t preach,
or if you
receive a
different spirit
which you didn’t
receive, or a
different “good
news” which
you didn’t accept,
you put up
with that well
enough.
5 For
I reckon that
I am not
at all behind
the very best apostles.
6 But
though I am
unskilled in
speech, yet I
am not unskilled
in knowledge. No,
in every way
we have been
revealed to you
in all things.
7 Or
did I commit
a sin in humbling
myself that you
might be exalted,
because I preached
to you God’s
Good News free
of charge?
8 I
robbed other
assemblies, taking
wages from them
that I might
serve you.
9 When
I was present
with you and
was in need,
I wasn’t a
burden on anyone,
for the brothers,
when they came
from Macedonia,
supplied the measure
of my need.
In everything I
kept myself from
being burdensome
to you, and
I will continue
to do so.
10 As
the truth of
Christ is in
me, no one
will stop me from
this boasting in
the regions
of Achaia.
11 Why?
Because I don’t
love you? God
knows.
12 But
what I do,
that I will
continue to do,
that I may
cut off opportunity
from those who
desire an opportunity,
that in which
they boast, they
may be recognized
just like us.
13 For
such men are
false apostles,
deceitful workers, masquerading
as Christ’s
apostles.
14 And
no wonder, for
even Satan masquerades
as an angel of
light.
15 It
is no great
thing therefore if
his servants
also masquerade as
servants of
righteousness, whose
end will be
according to their
works.
16 I
say again, let
no one think
me foolish. But if
so, yet receive
me as foolish,
that I also
may boast a
little.
17 That
which I speak,
I don’t speak
according to the
Lord, but as
in foolishness, in
this confidence of
boasting.
18 Seeing
that many boast
after the flesh,
I will also
boast.
19 For
you bear with
the foolish gladly,
being wise.
20 For
you bear with a
man if he
brings you into
bondage, if he
devours you, if
he takes
you captive, if he
exalts himself, or
if he strikes
you on the
face.
21 To
my shame, I speak
as though we
had been weak. Yet
in whatever way
anyone is bold (I
speak in foolishness),
I am bold
also.
22 Are
they Hebrews? So
am I. Are
they Israelites?
So am I.
Are they
the offspring
of Abraham? So am
I.
23 Are
they servants of
Christ? (I speak
as one beside himself.)
I am more
so: in labors
more abundantly,
in prisons more
abundantly, in
stripes above
measure, and in
deaths often.
24 Five
times I received
forty stripes minus one
from the Jews.
25 Three
times I was
beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned.
Three times I
suffered shipwreck.
I have been
a night and
a day in
the deep.
26 I
have been
in travels often,
perils of rivers,
perils of robbers,
perils from my
countrymen, perils
from the Gentiles,
perils in the
city, perils in
the wilderness,
perils in the
sea, perils among
false brothers;
27 in
labor and travail,
in watchings often,
in hunger and
thirst, in
fastings often,
and in cold
and nakedness.
28 Besides
those things that
are outside, there
is that
which presses on
me daily: anxiety
for all the
assemblies.
29 Who
is weak, and I
am not weak? Who
is caused to
stumble, and
I don’t burn
with indignation?
30 If
I must boast,
I will boast
of the things
that concern my weakness.
31 The
God and Father
of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he
who is blessed
forever more,
knows that I don’t
lie.
32 In
Damascus the
governor under
King Aretas guarded the
Damascenes’ city, desiring
to arrest me.
33 I
was let down
in a basket
through a window
by the wall,
and escaped his
hands.