1 O THAT you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Yes, bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God, for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be led away from sincerity and purity toward Christ.
4 For if some newcomer proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or if you receive a different kind of spirit which you did not receive, or a different good news which you did not welcome, you bear with him finely.
5 I consider that I am in nothing inferior to the most eminent apostles.
6 If I am an ordinary man in speaking, still I am not in knowledge, but in everything we made that altogether clear to you.
7 Did I commit a sin when I humbled myself that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed to you the good news of God without pay?
8 I robbed other churches by taking wages for serving you,
9 and when I was with you and in need I was not a burden to any one, for the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied my need. In every way I kept myself from being a burden to you, and shall keep myself so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be stopped in the region of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.
12 But what I am doing I shall do so as to cut away all ground of attack from those who wish ground, and that in what they boast of they may be found just like us.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 So it is no great thing if his servants too disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their deeds.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But, even if so, receive me as foolish, that I too may boast a little.
17 What I am saying I am not saying by the Lord's command, but as it were in foolishness, in this confident boasting.
18 Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast,
19 for you who are wise bear pleasantly with the foolish.
20 You bear it if any one enslaves you, if any one devours you, if any one takes possession of you, if any one exalts himself, if any one strikes you in the face.
21 I say it with shame as if we had been weak. But in whatever any one is bold I say it foolishly I too am bold.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descended from Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if I were out of my mind I superlatively \'97 in labors beyond measure, in prisons beyond measure, in floggings excessively, in deaths often.
24 From Jews five times I received forty stripes less one,
25 three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was ship-wrecked, a night and day I have been in the deep;
26 in journeys often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the open country, in perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 in toil and labor, in many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Aside, from other things there is that which weighs on me daily, anxiety for all the churches.
29 Who is weak and I am not weak? Who stumbles and I am not burning?
30 If there must be boasting, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows, he who is blessed forever, that I am not lying.
32 In Damascus the Governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes to arrest me,
33 and through a window I was lowered in a basket and escaped from his hands.