¹I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me .

²For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy . For I promised you in marriage to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ .

³But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness , so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ .

⁴For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn’t preach , or if you receive a different spirit which you didn’t receive , or a different “good news ” which you didn’t accept , you put up with that well enough .

⁵For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.

⁶But though I am unskilled in speech , yet I am not unskilled in knowledge . No , in every way we have been revealed to you in all things .

⁷Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted , because I preached to you God ’s Good News free of charge?

⁸I robbed other assemblies , taking wages from them that I might serve you .

⁹When I was present with you and was in need , I wasn’t a burden on anyone , for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia , supplied the measure of my need . In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you , and I will continue to do so .

¹⁰As the truth of Christ is in me , no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

¹¹Why ? Because I don’t love you ? God knows .

¹²But what I do , that I will continue to do , that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity, that in which they boast , they may be recognised just like us .

¹³For such men are false apostles , deceitful workers , masquerading as Christ ’s apostles .

¹⁴And no wonder , for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light .

¹⁵It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness , whose end will be according to their works .

¹⁶I say again , let no one think me foolish. But if so , yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little .

¹⁷That which I speak , I don’t speak according to the Lord , but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting .

¹⁸Seeing that many boast after the flesh , I will also boast .

¹⁹For you bear with the foolish gladly , being wise .

²⁰For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage , if he devours you , if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself , or if he strikes you on the face .

²¹To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also .

²²Are they Hebrews ? So am I . Are they Israelites ? So am I . Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I .[#11:22 or, seed]

²³Are they servants of Christ ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so : in labours more abundantly , in prisons more abundantly , in stripes above measure , and in deaths often .

²⁴Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews .

²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods . Once I was stoned . Three times I suffered shipwreck . I have been a night and a day in the deep .

²⁶I have been in travels often , perils of rivers , perils of robbers , perils from my countrymen , perils from the Gentiles , perils in the city , perils in the wilderness , perils in the sea , perils amongst false brothers;

²⁷in labour and travail , in watchings often , in hunger and thirst , in fastings often , and in cold and nakedness .

²⁸Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily : anxiety for all the assemblies .

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

³⁰If I must boast , I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ , he who is blessed forever more , knows that I don’t lie .

³²In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes ’ city , desiring to arrest me .

³³I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall , and escaped his hands .