I WISH ye would bear with me a little in my foolishness, yea indeed
bear with me. (2)For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy; for I
have espoused you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to
Christ. (3)But I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve by his
craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which
belongs to Christ. (4)For if he indeed that cometh preach another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, or ye receive another spirit, which
ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not embraced, ye
might well bear with him. (5)For I reckon myself to be nothing inferior
to the very chief of the apostles. (6)For though I may be rude in
speech, yet not in knowledge; but on every occasion we have been made
manifest in all things among you.
(7)Am I chargeable with a fault (humbling myself that you might be
exalted), that I preached to you the gospel of God freely? (8)I
plundered other churches, receiving a provision from them, in order to
minister to you. (9)And when I was with you, and in want, I was
burdensome to no man; for my want the brethren who came from Macedonia
supplied; and on every occasion I have kept myself from being
burdensome, and will keep myself. (10)I protest, by the truth of Christ
in me, that from this boasting no man shall seal up my lips in the
regions of Achaia. (11)Wherefore? Because I love you not? God knoweth.
(12)But what I do, I will do also, that I may cut off occasion from
those who desire occasion, that wherein they boast, they may be found
even as we. (13)For such are fake apostles, deceitful labourers,
transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. (14)And no marvel! For
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15)It is no
wonder therefore if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of
righteousness; whose end will be according to their works. (16)I repeat
it again, Let no man suppose that I am a fool; but if otherwise, then
as a fool receive me, that I too may boast myself a little. (17)What I
speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as it were in folly in this
confidence of boasting. (18)Seeing many boast themselves after the
flesh, I will boast also. (19)For ye bear with fools easily when you
are wise yourselves. (20)For ye bear if a man enslave you, if a man eat
you up, if a man receive from you, if a man is insolent, if a man smite
you on the face. (21)I speak with reference to the reproach _cast on
me_, as though we were feeble; but wherein any man 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 the ministers of Christ? (I speak foolishly) I am above _them_: in
labours more abundantly, in stripes exceedingly more, in prisons more
frequently, in the most immediate danger of death often. (24)Of the
Jews five times I have received forty stripes save one. (25)Thrice I
have been scourged with rods, once I have been stoned, thrice I have
suffered shipwreck, a whole night and day I have passed in the deep;
(26)in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in
perils from my own countrymen, in perils from the heathen, in perils in
the city, in perils in the desert, in perils on the sea, in perils
among false brethren; (27)in labour and travail, in watchings often, in
fastings frequently, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness;
(28)and beside all these things from without, that accumulated burden
which cometh on me daily, the care of all the churches. (29)Who is
feeble, and am I not feeble? Who is offended, and am I not on fire?
(30)If I must glory, I will glory in the things which respect my
infirmities. (31)The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. (32)In Damascus the
governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes,
intending to seize me; (33)and through a window in a basket I was let
down by the wall, and escaped out of his hands.