1I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness—but indeed you do bear with me.
2For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3But I fear that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted from the sincerity and the purity that are toward Christ.
4For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you bear with it well enough.
5For I consider that I have in no way fallen short of the super-apostles.
6But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not in knowledge; rather, in every way we have made this clear to you in all things.
7Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
8I robbed other churches, taking wages from them for the purpose of ministering to you,
9and when I was present with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will keep myself so.
10The truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.
12But what I do, I will also continue to do, in order to cut off the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, so that in what they boast they may be found just as we also are.
13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.
15So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness—whose end will be according to their works.
16Again I say, let no one think me to be foolish; but if you do, then accept me even as foolish, so that I too may boast a little.
17What I am saying, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as it were in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.
19For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!
20For you bear with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone exalts himself, if someone strikes you in the face.
21To my shame I say it, as though we have been weak. But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I speak in foolishness—I also dare.
22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
23Are they servants of Christ? I speak as though out of my mind: I am more so—in labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in beatings beyond measure, in dangers of death often.
24From the Jews five times I received forty lashes less 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 deep.
26in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my own people, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers,
27in toil and hardship, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—
28apart from the things left unmentioned, there is the daily pressure upon me, the anxiety for all the churches.
29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?
30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
32In Damascus the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me,
33but I was lowered in a basket through a window through the wall, and I escaped his hands.
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