Paul and the False Apostles

1Oh, that you would bear with me a little in my foolishness; but indeed you do bear with me.

2For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

3But I fear, lest perhaps 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 to you preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you may well put up with him!

5For I consider myself in nothing to have been inferior to the most super apostles.

6But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not inferior in knowledge, but in every way I was made known to you in all things.

7Or did I commit sin in humbling myself in order that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you freely?

8I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you,

9and when I was present with you, and in need, I did not burden anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and so I will keep myself.

10As the truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting will not be silenced in me in the regions of Achaia.

11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows!

12But what I am doing, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity of those who desire an opportunity, that in what they boast they may be found just as we are.

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

16Again I say, let no one think me a fool. 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.

18Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I also will boast.

19For you bear with fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are so wise!

20For you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes from you, if someone exalts himself, if someone strikes you in 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 even more: in labors far more, in beatings immeasurably, in imprisonments far more, in deaths often.

24By 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 spent in the depth of the sea.

26In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers;

27in labor and hardship, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—

28apart from what I leave unmentioned, what comes against me daily: the anxiety for all the churches.

29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

30If I must boast, I will boast about the things concerning my weakness.

31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

32In 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.