< 2 Corinthians 11 >
1 Would that ye could bear with me in a little folly! and indeed ye do bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I espoused you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ;
3 but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from single-heartedness toward Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye did not receive, or another gospel, which ye did not accept, well might ye bear with it.
5 For I suppose that I am in no respect behind the very foremost apostles.
6 And though I am rude in speech, yet I am not in knowledge; but this did we in every respect manifest to you in all things.
7 Did I commit an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God without charge?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, in order to do you service;
9 and when I was present with you, and in want, I was a charge to no one; (for the brethren, when they came from Macedonia, supplied my wants; ) and in every thing I kept myself and will keep myself from being burdensome to you.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting shall not be stopped in regard to me in the regions of Achaia.
11 Wherefore? Because I love you not? God knoweth!
12 But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off occasion from those who wish for an occasion, in order that in the matter of which they boast they may be found even as we.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder; for even Satan transformeth himself into an angel of light.
15 It is no great thing, then, if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one suppose me a fool; if otherwise, yet even 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 that many boast after the flesh, I will boast also.
19 For ye bear with fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise;
20 for ye bear with it, if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one smites you on the face.
21 I say it to my reproach, that we were weak; but in whatever any one is bold, (I speak in folly, ) I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abram's offspring? So am I.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside myself, ) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often;
24 of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one;
25 thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep;
26 by journeyings often; by perils of rivers, by perils of robbers, by perils from my countrymen, by perils from the heathen, by perils in the city, by perils in the wilderness, by perils in the sea, by perils among false brethren;
27 by weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides the other troubles, there is that which presseth upon me daily, the anxiety for all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is in danger of stumbling, and I do not burn?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things which belong to my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I am not lying. (aiōn )
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept guard over the city of the Damascenes, in order to apprehend me;
33 and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.
