[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 married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin
to Christ. [3] But I am afraid that by any means, as the serpent deceived
Eve in his craftiness, your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity
that is toward Christ. [4] For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom
we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not
receive, or a different gospel, which you did not 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 gospel for nothing? [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 do, that I may cut off
occasion from them that desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they
may be found even as we. [13] For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workers, masquerading as Christ`s apostles. [14] No wonder, for even Satan
masquerades as an angel of light. [15] It is no great thing therefore if
his ministers 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 after 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, if he strikes you on
the face. [21] I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak.
Yet however any 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 seed 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, in deaths often. [24] Five times from
the Jews I received forty stripes minus one. [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] 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? [30] If I must boast, I will
boast of the things that concern my weakness. [31] The God and Father of
the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forevermore, knows that I don`t lie. [32]
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the
Damascenes in order to take me. [33] Through a window I was let down in a
basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.
